


What If The Storm Ends?

by anerdandanofficer



Category: Rookie Blue
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-01-03 10:51:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 51,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anerdandanofficer/pseuds/anerdandanofficer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starts at ep 4x7, filling in the blanks between the scenes shown, from Holly's point of view as she fell for Gail against her better judgement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is the first time I have written anything in over two years, so go a little easy on me :P
> 
> I really love G/H stories that show what happened in between what was shown, so after reading every one of those I could find, I decided to write my own.
> 
> I do have to admit, this makes more sense if you've recently re-watched the Holly/Gail scenes. There are just subtle things like, in episode seven, when *spoiler* Sam comes in to look at the bones, and while Holly is showing him, Gail has the gloves on and she's pointing as well, like she knows, and I kind of explained the reason behind that, and just little things here and there. Anyway, I am super nervous about this, and it's probably terrible, but I hope you somewhat enjoy it.

Holly was captivated by Gail the moment she met her. Was it those electric blue eyes or the sharp quips that so flawlessly slipped off her tongue? Either way, from that first conversation, Holly found herself entirely intrigued.

She could feel the blonde officer watching her curiously as she examined the body, collected samples, moving methodically through her work. When she glanced backwards however the other woman quickly masked her intrigue with an expression of boredom, as though she was simply waiting impatiently to leave.

"I do apologize for keeping you waiting, officer," she called back sarcastically as she carefully bagged and tagged some more samples. The blonde rolled her eyes.

"They do this stuff much faster on television. But maybe that's because they're the top of their fields," she quipped back. Holly felt herself smirk.

"Because we all know how realistic television shows are," she retorted, "I think I have everything I need." She directed her next comment to a member of the forensic team, "Could you have the bones carefully removed and taken back to my lab." As she began to make her way back up the slope, she found the blonde officer awkwardly following behind her.

"You're not going to ride with the bones? I thought you might find them more on your conversational level," Holly asked as she slowed a little the let the other woman catch up. She groaned a little internally as soon as she said, maybe that was too far? She had never been a good judge of these kinds of social protocols. The officer reached her side, casting an unfazed look across at her.

"It was a tough call, but they did smell just a little more than you do."

\---

Holly turned the volume down a little as she pulled onto the winding road back towards the morgue. She could feel the eyes of the other woman critically analyzing her CD collection sitting below the stereo. The blonde wiggled a little on the leather seat.

"Nice car, being a lab nerd must pay well." Holly laughed.

"Work car, actually, although the pay isn't too bad," she conceded, glancing across to catch those icy blue eyes watching her again thoughtfully. The soft gaze quickly hardened as it met Holly's, but the brunette had already seen enough to see straight through the dull look of boredom that replaced it. Even with their expression so stern, those bright eyes still made her stomach twist just a little.

"Holly Stewart, is my name, by the way," she mentally kicked herself as she stumbled through the sentence. This is why I only have two friends. But she saw a hint of a smile play around the edges of the other woman's lips and any regret she had for her poorly phrased introduction melted away.

"I have not had so awkward an introduction since my mother tried to help me make friends on my first day of high school," the other girl quipped.

"Did you need a lot of help in that area?" Holly asked with a smirk.

"Gail" she responded to Holly's previous introduction and completely ignored her comment. The brunette smiled. Gail, she liked the sound of it.

"Do you always listen to classical music?" Gail asked.

"Would you prefer some mindless, commercial radio, top 40 pop?" Holly quirked her eyebrows, glancing across at the blonde questioningly. Gail grinned.

"Yes. Exactly." Raising a laugh out of Holly, who leaned forward, switching the stereo from CD to radio.

"You have free reign of the seek button. But if I hear Justin Bieber, I will be forced to change the channel."

"And miss out on me flawlessly wrapping Nicki Minaj's feature from Beauty and the Beat?" Gail shook her head, "Your call," she shrugged.

"I didn't really pick you for the white rapper type." Holly sniggered.

"I'm full of surprises."

"I'll bet."

\---

As Detective Swarek and Detective Nash practically jogged back down the hall towards the exit, Holly glanced at Gail before pulling her focus back down to the bones in front of her, shifting the instrument slightly to gain the best angle.

"Having fun yet?" She couldn't stop herself from asking as she carefully inspected a section of the spine.

"Yea," Gail answered, more sincerely than Holly had expected, "It's all kind of interesting." Holly looked back up to catch those blue eyes as she replied.

"Careful there Gail, or I'll start to think you kind of like me." She raised her eyebrows suggestively, before laughing as she reached towards her tool tray.

"You're not so bad," the blonde admitted, and Holly felt a slight warmth in her cheeks before the other woman added, "for a nerd." She could feel her heart beating at an elevated pace inside her chest as she willed herself to reply, and preferably not too awkwardly.

"You're not so bad yourself, for a cop that is," she grinned. Gail shook her head, and returned her smile ruefully.

\---

Gail finished making a call to the detective in charge and walked back over. Holly could feel her watching, much more openly than before, as she examined the bones. When she looked up, this time the blonde smiled.

"Come here," Holly motioned for the officer to stand next to her. Purely so she could better show her what she was doing, of course. Not in any way because she wanted Gail closer to her. She leaned over, and the other woman copied awkwardly, in an entirely endearing way.

"See just here," she pointed to a section on one of the bones. Gail looked, narrowing her eyes.

"I told you before, I just see bone," she muttered defensively, frowning.

"I don't expect you to see anything else yet. Do you have a medical degree?" The blonde shook her head, "I didn't think so. So, see here," she gently ran one gloved finger along the fracture in the worn bone as she explained carefully what it was and what it meant. Gail listened quietly, genuinely interested, taking it all in. As Holly continued explaining and showing Gail the main areas, the key things that were important, the blonde took it all in.

"So, do I get my own pair of gloves now?" she asked, "being your temporary assistant, and all." Holly laughed and pointed towards the box on her desk.

"Be my guest, but I warn you, the powder they use on the inside is a bitch to get off." She watch Gail carefully slide her petite hands into each blue plastic glove, wiggling each finger down and pulling therm down over her wrists, and felt the heat rising a little in her cheeks again before the blonde quipped her at,

"Is bitch the scientifically correct term?"

\---

After Detective Swarek left her morgue for the second time that day, it occurred to Holly that maybe Gail's continued presence was at that point more voluntary than mandatory. How long did an officer really need to stay and oversee the examination on bones from ten years ago? She sometimes had officers stand by for important investigations, to relay information back to the team, it wasn't than unusual. But they didn't usually stay quite so long.

"Tea or coffee?" Gail asked, and Holly realized that without her noticing the blonde had made her way around to the other side of the table, standing next to the desk.

"You going somewhere?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound too concerned about that fact. Gail smiled.

"Vending machine, end of the hall. Don't worry, I'll be back shortly. You'll only have to miss me for ten or so minutes." She pulled her wallet out of one of the large pockets of her uniform coat, "My shout".

"Tea, no sugar, dash of milk," Holly replied. Why was she so entirely fascinated by this woman she had known for less than even a day? She watched Gail through the glass windows until she disappeared from sight, and shook her head. Since when did she, Holly Stewart, miss rational for as long as she could remember, turn to jelly over a girl who she wasn't even sure yet was interested in girls, let alone herself.

Ten minutes later Gail reappeared, staggering into the lab with a hot beverage in each hand, and packets of cheesy puffs, a chocolate bar, and an apple held precariously between her chest and her arms. Holly stopped what she was doing and hurried around towards her, discarding her plastic gloves as she did so, to alleviate her of some of her cargo.

"What on earth is all this?" she asked bemused.

"I thought you might be hungry, but I didn't know what you'd like," Gail told her as she allowed the brunette to carefully extract the hot Styrofoam cup of tea from her hand. She left the rest of the goods fall onto the desk, and stepped back to allow Holly first pick at her stash. Holly took a packet of cheesy puffs and leaned against the filing cabinet.

"Thanks." She blew gently on the top of her tea, and looked back up to find Gail assessing her.

"I honestly thought you'd go for the apple." She commented thoughtfully, before sipping her coffee. Holly smirked, mildly bemused. Did she even want to ask.

"And why is that?" She couldn't help herself. Everything about Gail intrigued her.

"Teachers pet. Red apple. You know," the blonde shrugged, "plus that dorky sweater doesn't do you much justice, but you look reasonably fit for someone who spends so much time in a dark morgue." The assessment showed more attention than Holly thought the blonde had bothered to pay to her, and she smiled, the right corner of her mouth lifting as she sipped her tea conservatively.

\---

"Oh, I mean I hate people." Holly found herself completely enamored by this sarcastic, guarded, gorgeous blonde cop. The revelation should have put her off more. Gail was straight, that much was now clearer than ever. But she told herself that didn't matter, because what she needed right now wasn't a girlfriend, it was just a friend. That's what her therapist kept saying; "Try and make a new friend. Extend your boundaries. Do something different."

As she rounded the corner she found that Gail had stopped to wait for her to catch up.

"Come on slow poke, do you always walk at the pace of a snail?" the blonde asked as they continued down the hall.

"Only when I'm trying to avoid cops who have been stalking me all day," she replied. Gail smirked, but looked a little cut.

"I was assigned to you Holly, don't flatter yourself," she retorted a little stiffly. As they reached the exit, she turned towards the carpark and found the blonde didn't follow, so she turned back around. Gail had stopped outside the doors, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other.

"How are you getting home?" Holly asked as she took a step back towards her.

"I got a lift to the station with my roommate," Gail replied, avoiding eye contact, "where can I get a cab from near here?" Holly shook her head, and grabbed Gail gently by the arm.

"No way, I'm giving you a lift, come on," she smiled pulling the blonde in the direction of her car. Gail looked at her, expression stony.

"I wouldn't want you to think I was stalking you or anything." Holly grinned and shook her head.

"If anything, I'm far more stalker-like right now, as I am about to discover your home address." She tugged gently again, and this time Gail relented and followed.

"If I see who hanging around my street creepily without reason, I am a police officer, and I do own mace," the blonde retorted as they approach Holly's car. Holly let go of her arm, and walked around to the driver's side.

"Could you really mace this pretty face?" she batted her eyelashes at Gail as she turned the ignition. Gail smirked, but ignored the question.

"You do actually have a very nice car. I think this is nicer than the work car."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Today I am leaving on an 11 day cruise for my 21st birthday :) So although I plan to work on this while I am away, I am not certain of when I will be able to post the next chapter. 11 days would be the maximum though, if worst came to worst I would post it the day I got back, but depending on how much fun I have and how lazy I am to use the ice age slow internet, it could be earlier.**
> 
> **Thank you so much to every single person who took the time to write a review or follow my story :) You are all boosting my ego greatly haha**
> 
> **I feel like the last chapter was a little clunky, so hopefully this one feels much more smooth.**

* * *

 

"So, this is my place," Gail said awkwardly, sitting in the car, seat belt still clipped in. Holly squinted up through the windscreen, adjusting where her glasses sat on her nose to take it in fully. It was a slightly older building, not in that ugly, 'when did society ever think that looked good' kind of way, but in a way that gave the building a little bit of character. She decided that she liked it. As she looked back at Gail she found the other woman looking at her, almost shyly, if that was possible for one of the most brazen people she had met in a long time. She knew the officer was going to get out of the car, any minute now, and she had absolutely no reason to see her again.

"Can I borrow your phone for a second?" Holly asked, as subtly as she could manage. Gail looked dubious as she withdrew it from her coat pocket, holding the phone in her lap but making no effort to hand it over.

"What are you going to do? Change my background to some ridiculous picture? Because believe me, both my roommates have done that one before, and paid the price," Gail was trying to keep her expression serious, but the corners of her lips curled just slightly and gave her away. Holly reached over the console and quickly pulled the mobile out of her grip.

"I guess you'll have to wait and see," she replied mysteriously, wiggling her eyebrows at the blonde as she quickly moved her fingers over the keypad. It was dark in the car, and the light from the phone screen played over Holly's facial features as she worked hurriedly. She could tell that Gail was impatient, the officer was twitching her foot just slightly as she waited. When she finished she locked the screen and offered it back again. Gail placed her hand gently over the phone, her fingers brushing over Holly's palm as she recaptured the mobile. Holly felt herself gulp quietly.

"Well. Good night then, nerd." Gail grinned as she opened the car door to get out.

"Good night, officer." Holly watched the other girl ascend the steps to the front door of the building, taking a glance back at the car just as she pulled it closed behind her. The street was fairly quiet, maybe they all knew by now that several police officers were living just down from them. She waited a little longer, just to make sure Gail got in okay. She was about to pull out when her mobile phone lit up where it sat in the CD compartment. She picked it up and grinned when she saw the new text from an 'unknown' number.

' _Now you really are getting stalkerish_ ' read the message. Holly glanced up and saw one of the windows lit up, Gail's dark silhouette leant against the window frame, her coat obviously left at the door, her gentle curves highlighted by the position she stood in.

' _You checked to see if I'd left? I think you missed me already_ ' she replied quickly, before putting her car into reverse and slowly pulling out. As she reached the next set of lights she saw her phone light up again, and used all her will power to stop herself from checking it. She was texting a cop after all, how would that look? Texting and driving. By the time she reached her apartment she was dying to read the message, her foot falling a little too hard on the breaks and the car coming abruptly to a halt. She picked up the mobile and read as she blindly felt around for the bag she'd thrown into the back.

' _Says the person who left their number in my phone. Captain of the nerd squad?_ ' Holly can't remember the last time she was this giddy over a text message. She shook her head, heaving her bag over the console and stepping out onto the pavement.

' _Well I was going to put it under Captain Awesome, but I thought you might get my number confused with your own_ '. Too flirty? She shook her head, stepping into the lift and hitting send. The texting continued as she entered her apartment, dropping her bag at the foot of her couch and collapsing back into the cushions.

' _Home yet? Where do you even live?_ '

' _Yes, and wouldn't you like to know._ '

' _It's the nice part of town, isn't it? I can tell by your car. Nobody has a car like that unless they live in the nice part of town_.'

' _What even is the nice part of town?_ '

' _Only someone from the nice part of town would ask that._ '

Holly giggled and dropped her phone onto the coffee table, dragging herself up off the couch to make dinner. When she finally returned to her spot half an hour later, with a large bowl of pasta, ready to settle in for another night of TV and early to bed, she saw another text from Gail.

' _Oh no_.' is all it read, most likely expecting a swift response, but it had been left unanswered for twenty minutes.

' _Oh no?_ ' Holly replied quizzically as she flipped channels. Gail's reply came almost immediately.

' _Way to leave me hanging, what if I had been kidnapped? or was being robbed at gunpoint?_ '

' _I would like to hope your response to being robbed at gunpoint wouldn't be "oh no". What's the matter?_ '

' _I left my last packet of cheesy puffs in your car_.'

' _That's your oh no? I can always return them to you on Monday_.' A perfect opportunity to see the her again.

' _But then what will I eat NOW?_ ' came the reply. Holly sat up a little, shoveling pasta into her mouth a bit faster.

' _Are you asking me to drive all the way back down to your place, to return your packet of cheesy puffs?_ '

There was a pause as she waited for Gail's reply, in which time she finished off her pasta much faster then she probably should have eaten it.

' _Well. Yes._ '

Holly paused at the front door as she stopped to grab her coat. Was she really about to drive back across town, after finally getting home from a long day at work, to return a packet of chips to a straight girl she'd only met that very same morning? The idea seemed ridiculous, but she convinced herself that she was just doing something different, 'extending her boundaries', and making a new friend. It was a long time since she'd last made a new friend, maybe this was entirely normal.

When she pulled back into Gail's driveway that same window was still lit up, and movement in the corner told her that the blonde has noticed her presence. She waited a moment before exiting the car, the driveway falling back into darkness as she closed and locked the door behind her. As she moved towards the front steps a light came on behind the glass door. It opened as she reached the top step, revealing Gail leant gracefully against the door frame. Her blonde hair was wet and loose around her shoulders and face, stray strands clinging to her face, and water still dripping intermittently from the tips onto her shoulders. She was wearing only a very baggy black t-shirt, branded with the logo of what looked like a heavy metal band, which stopped halfway down her pale thighs. Holly could feel heat flushing her cheeks and prayed they weren't turning red. She must have paused for longer than she realized, because Gail seemed to duck her head almost shyly.

"I didn't have time to put pants on, what would the city do if our best morgue nerd called in sick, all because I left you in the cold too long?" she quipped, motioning for Holly to come inside. The brunette stepped over the threshold.  _Don't put on pants on my behalf_  she thought. Her nervous habit of babbling was rising to the surface.

"Did you know that wet hair in cold weather increasing chances of catching the common cold is actually an old wives tail? There is no conclusive evidence that cold temperatures increase our chances of catching any of the viruses that cause infection. The reason it is most common in winter is because the harsh weather causes people to stay indoors, where ventilation is restricted and proximity to infected friends and family members is increased," she rattled off instead. When she turned to look back at Gail the blonde was shaking her head and smiling.

"Thank you for that random factoid, nerd." She locked the door behind her and led the way, Holly trailing behind her.

"I was only mentioning this because your hair still appears to be wet, and the automatic response of my mother would have been to keep inside or you would catch a cold. But this isn't actually… correct." She was sure this time that her cheeks were slightly red, but Gail couldn't see this because she was walking in front of Holly, giving the brunette the perfect position to watch the soft white backs of her legs peeking out from underneath her t-shirt, only fuelling Holly's flustered and nervous state further. As they reached the living room Holly realized how quiet it was.

"Where are these famous roommates you speak of so frequently?" she asked, throwing the packet of cheesy puffs towards Gail, who seemed to have quite forgotten about the sole reason she had demanded Holly drive all the way over. The blonde grinned as she caught them, tearing open the packet and walking towards the fridge. Holly followed her over, leaning in the doorway.

"I came home to find a note saying Dov would be out till late, and Chris… doesn't actually live here anymore, sometimes I forget that," she informed her with a mouthful of cheesy puff as she yanked the fridge door open, "do you drink beer?" she pulled two out of the fridge and offered one to the other woman, smoothly removing the cap on her own by hitting it against the counter top in one swift movement at just the right angle. Holly took hers and fumbled for a moment with a bottle opener before Gail took it back and opened hers for her as well.

Several beers, two thirds of a pizza and a bad midnight movie later, Gail had fallen asleep on the lounge sometime a little after two am. Holly, starting to feel quite lethargic herself, quickly extricated herself from the couch and found a blanket in the cupboard, gently laying it over her. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping, Holly bit her lip as she watched the blonde, before realizing how incredibly creepy it was to watch your new friend sleep. Luckily she had stuck to the one beer, or a very awkward sleepover would have commenced. She gulped down a large glass of water, left a note on the coffee table and left. But that night she lay in bed for another hour and a half, with thoughts of a blonde cop running through her head, before she finally fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the ridiculously slow update, things have been crazy hectic since I got back from a totally amazing birthday cruise, but, I MAY HAVE A NEW APARTMENT. So yayyy! haha
> 
> But thank you so so so much to everyone who read and reviewed and followed, especially those incredibly kind people who left me sweet birthday wishes and told me to enjoy my cruise :)
> 
> Hope you guys are still enjoying this, and liking the route I'm taking so far.
> 
> .

It had been almost a week since Holly had left Gail asleep on her couch, and she had not seen her since. They texted at least once a day, sometimes much more. Holly had been in the office late at night eating takeout food at her desk and received a text from Gail who was at the Penny with all her friends, slightly inebriated, ' _Your glasses are kind of cool you know. Like in a nerd way._ ' Or one night she had been lying in bed at night reading a new book and her phone lit up, ' _Caterpillars are weird, weird creatures. They creep me out._ '

 

' _Gail, why are you thinking about caterpillars?'_

 

' _There's one on my window sill, and I'm too scared to move it, but too scared to sleep in case it crawls into my mouth_.'

 

' _That's very unlikely_.'

 

' _Is that a scientific fact?_ '

 

' _Would it make you feel better if it was?_ '

 

' _Probably_.'

 

' _Then yes Gail, that's s scientific fact. Think you can sleep now?_ ' And she would never get a reply, because the blonde would have fallen asleep texting her, only to message her the next morning ' _I slept on my phone and now I have the imprints of the keys on my cheek._ '

 

One night she had been finishing up work when her phone went off. ' _How wuld u feel about given g me a lift?_ ' She'd smiled, reading the text as she collected up her bags. ' _From where?_ ' Ten minutes later she had been parking outside The Penny, in front of which stood Gail, a little bit drunk, grinning at her. She'd stopped the car, unclipped her seatbelt and got out.

 

"Are you sober enough to make it to the car, or do you need assistance?" she had quipped, shaking her head at the blonde.

 

"I can make it to the car, party pooper," Gail had insisted, wobbling momentarily when she walked but steadying herself as she reached Holly's side of the car. She'd placed a hand against the car door and leaned towards Holly smiling.

 

"Thank youuuu," she'd chirped. Holly had taken her by the hand and led her around to the passenger side. When she felt Gail interlink their fingers as they walked around the bonnet her heart rate had quickened nervously. She quickly pulled her hand free, making as though she was doing so to open the car door. The blonde smirked.

 

"Such a gentleman," as she stepped into the car, "Holly?" she'd quickly piped up as Holly went to shut the door. Holly stopped and leaned in and the blonde had, in a most sober and sincere manner, smiled up at her.

 

"But really, thank you." The brunette's stomach twisted and she tried to brush it off.

 

"What was I supposed to do, leave a pretty blonde girl to walk home in the dark on her own?" what was supposed to be a flippant blow off ended up a compliment. How did that happen?

 

"You think I'm pretty?" Gail had asked, grinning almost triumphantly, "Why nerd, I think you have taken quite a shine to me."

 

"Says the girl who texts me almost every day," Holly had retorted and closed the car door, walking back around to the drivers side and climbing in.

 

"What exactly did you do that left you with not a single friend to come and pick you up, that you had to resort to me?" she asked as she put the car into reverse and carefully pulled out. She was expecting a usual Gail answer, the kind she would have received that first day when they met.

 

"Nothing. I asked you first." Which shut Holly up completely for the next ten minutes, while Gail sung along softly to the radio, to some of the most terrible songs she could find, until she finally managed to make Holly laugh.

 

Holly had dropped Gail at home, walking her to the front door, and made her promise that she would go upstairs, drink a large glass of water and then put herself straight to bed.

 

"Yes nerd, I promise," the blonde rolled her eyes dramatically, "stop being such a worry wart. A couple of drinks never did anybody any harm."

 

"That's factually incorrect, but also, I'm not entirely sure that I believe it was only a couple of drinks," Holly quipped, raising her eyebrows. Gail took Holly's hand, squeezing it gently.

 

"I think it's past your bed time nerd." Her thumb brushed over Holly's palm, tracing the main crease, and the brunette had no idea what to do, but she knew that she wanted to kiss her, and she knew that was the last thing she should do. So she laughed, and pulled her hand away a little bit too hard, causing Gail to stumble forward towards her. Her blue eyes caught the streetlight, that dirty yellow colour dancing through them, and then she moved away, back towards the door, her gaze turning slightly steely, like she was putting a guard up.

 

"Goodnight nerd."

 

"Goodnight Gail."

 

She hadn't slept much at all that night.

 

The next morning, at almost midday, she had received a text. ' _Never drinking again. Sorry if I sung in front of you_.' Like nothing at all had happened. Like that had been an entirely normal occurrence of a friend giving another drunk friend a lift home. So Holly had chalked it up to being exactly that, and quickly shut down the feelings that had been starting to build through a restless night of overthinking.

 

After that, she _had_ wanted to see Gail, but every time they tried something got in the way. Holly was in the middle of working some evidence for a big case from another precinct, and the few times she was free, Gail was busy. Holly was almost glad in a way though, if only for the reason that maybe this would give her a chance for this silly crush to settle before she went and did something stupid to ruin their budding friendship.

 

It was fairly late in the afternoon and Holly was at work. The case she’d been working on was settled from the moment, the perp caught, and her involvement now finished pending trial. So she was filling in time, finalizing backlogged paperwork and other, more mundane aspects of her job, when she heard her mobile vibrating on the thick wood of her desk. She reached up absentmindedly and grabbed it from next to the computer screen, to find she has a new message from Gail.

 

‘ _Ugh. I have to go to my bosses wedding tonight. I hate weddings_.’

 

Holly smirked and quickly typed back. ‘ _Do you have a date to help endure the suffering with you?_ ’ She knew she was towing the line, but couldn’t help herself. This time, when her phone went off again, her eyes jumped immediately to the screen.

 

‘ _Depends, are you free tonight?_ ’ Her mouth suddenly felt dry.

 

‘ _Are you asking me to be your plus one, officer?_ ’

 

‘ _I’m asking you to meet me at the bar, and attempt to keep me mildly sane tonight_.’ As Holly was contemplating her reply, another message came through. ‘ _Please._ ’

 

‘ _Open tab? I’m in._ ’

 

And so it was that Holly had found herself rushing home to raid her closet for something to wear. Something not too casual, but not too formal. She picked up a plaid shirt and shook her head, not too gay either. Since when did she care so much? She couldn’t remember the last time she spent so long picking out an outfit.

 

Holly had still managed to arrive at the wedding earlier than the agreed time. She walked in, took one look at the hall full of guests, most likely all friends of Gail’s, and most of whom she had barely ever spoken too, and began to feel nervous and a little out of place. The bar, where she had agreed to meet Gail, was surrounded by officers ordering beers and champagne and chatting loudly. She fidgeted with the lapels of her jacket for a moment awkwardly, and then walked quickly towards the coat check room. When she found it empty, the attendant nowhere in sight, she hung her own coat, and turned around to find a man waiting behind her with his own outstretched. Trying to avoid awkwardness, she took the coat from him, smiling politely, when he placed a twenty on the desk.

 

“Take good care of it for me,” he smiled at her. Holly fumbled with the tags left sitting on the desk, pulling off a ticket and handing it to him. Ten minutes later she'd found she was still in the coat room, hanging jackets for guests, an effective system in pace and all of the coats arranged carefully by time of arrival. The sense of order made her feel calmer, a nervous habit she’d had since primary school when on her first day she’d arranged her colored pencils according to the rainbow song and her lead pencils according to length.

 

She took a seat while she waited for the next guest to arrive, picking up a book from the table and mindlessly scanning the pages, when Gail walked in, in that stunning gold dress, and her breath caught a little, and she kicked herself mentally. _How did I ever think this was a good idea considering my current emotional and physical attraction to this woman?_

 

Gail, in what Holly was beginning to understand was a usual Gail manner, walked in guard up, with a demeanor of mild agitation and dull boredom at even the idea of the night ahead.

 

They left the coat room and made a beeline straight for the bar at Gail’s insistence, despite Holly’s attempt to get her on the dance floor, squeezing in between a couple of officers donned in smart tuxedoes. Gail was pressed up against Holly’s side as they leaned on the stone counter top and tried to grab the server’s attention.

 

“What’s your poison?” Gail asked her as they waited, raising her eyebrows, her face close to Holly’s in the limited space. The words were warm breath that touched Holly’s lips, and she gulped, and turned her face and body away from the bar out towards the dance floor. She spotted a waiter, round tray precariously poised on one hand and piled high with champagne flutes.

 

“Well it is a wedding, maybe we should go the classy route?” she nodded her head towards them. Gail followed the gesture and smiled.

 

“Champagne does seem appropriate.” She stepped away in the direction of the drinks, her hand slipping around Holly’s wrist as she did so and pulling the brunette with her. Holly let herself be led, and a drink placed in her hand, the warm grip on her wrist replaced with cold glass against her palm.

 

“Bottoms up!” Gail downed her glass in three gulps, and so Holly followed suit as the blonde retrieved two more from the waiter, replacing Holly’s empty glass with a full one as soon as she’d finished.

 

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to get me drunk,” Holly smirked as she raised the second glass to her lips. Gail laughed, a small flush of pink just touching the top of her cheek bones. Holly wasn’t sure if it was from the question, or the champagne, but presumed it was most likely the latter.

 

“I’m trying to get us both drunk,” Gail replied, leading Holly over to a more quiet corner of the room and leaning back against the wall. Holly couldn’t help but notice the way the position highlighted the blonde’s body. She pulled her mind away from the train of thought before it went too far, and focused herself on Gail’s thoughtful gaze.

 

“Do you dislike weddings because, like me, you find the whole social ritual to be an awkward and unpleasant event filled with far too much interaction, or some other reason?” Holly asked casually. She disliked weddings much the same as she disliked a variety of other large social gatherings. Interaction especially in large numbers and with a great number of people she knew very little if at all was slightly anxiety causing and awkward. She suspected that while Gail shared this notion to a degree, maybe there was something else behind her strong dislike of weddings.

 

"Is it something to do with your cat analogy and the most recent relationship which I'm guessing was the catalyst for the breakthrough metaphor?" she asked bluntly, when Gail paused for longer than she could patiently wait for an answer. The blonde shook her head, smiling ruefully at her.

 

"Holly, when you get me drunk enough, I will divulge in you all my deepest darkest secrets, including that one. Until then, you are here to be my entertainment, not my therapist," she informed her.

 

"Is that so?"

 

"Yes," Gail laughed, "now, you have ten more minutes to attempt to convince me to dance, before the ceremony starts." Holly grinned, finishing her second champagne, the bubbly liquid buzzing as it went down her throat and filled her stomach with warmth. She placed the glass on the nearest table, and took Gail by the hand, dragging her back towards the dance floor while the blonde giggled and mildly tried to resist.

 

"Well how are you going to say no, once you see my killer dance moves?"

 

"Like what, nerd? Please don't tell me you do the shopping trolley."

 

"The shopping trolley is a classic move! But I was thinking a little more Elvis, maybe some Michael Jackson?" she attempted to moonwalk, very awkwardly, bumping into another guest and turning beetroot red as she apologized repeatedly. Gail was giggling so hard that by the time Holly turned around, the blonde's eyes were starting to tear up. She smiled sheepishly, and Gail smiled back.

 

"Way to show me your killer moves, nerd, almost literally. At least the autopsy would be an easy one, death by tragic dance moves."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the incredibly late update, things are a bit crazy.
> 
> I really hope that you guys still like the direction this is going in. Any feedback you do have though is totally welcome :)
> 
> Hope you all had a great Christmas! Thank you to all those amazing people who left reviews. And have a great new year.
> 
> ...

The problem with champagne, as Holly had discovered at her cousin's eighteenth birthday when she was sixteen and allowed to toast, was that it went straight to her head. It seemed that it affected her just as strongly now as it had then. She wagered that was the reason she felt brave enough to have her hand sitting on the back of Gail's chair for most of the ceremony, to touch her lightly as they giggled over this and that, to lean slightly in towards her as they watched the couple exchange their vows. She wasn't drunk, far from it yet, but just two glasses and her judgment was certainly impaired.

As the service came to a close and the couple announced for everyone to move to the dance floor, she turned towards Gail, catching the soft smile on her face and the look in her eye.

"I don't think you hate weddings as much as you thought you did. I think Gail is turning into a bit of a sap," she teased, poking the blonde in the ribs. Gail shooed her away, grabbing her hand to stop her attack and using it to pull Holly along with her as she stood up.

"Maybe I just have good company," she replied, facing away from Holly so that the brunette couldn't see her face. Holly caught up with her as they moved between the crowd exiting the seating area towards the dance floor and the drinks. She elbowed Gail lightly as they walked beside each other.

"Are you calling me good company?" she grinned, and in nervous habit went to push her glasses back up her nose before realizing they weren't there. Gail shrugged noncommittally, striding out in front of her towards the bar, before commenting back behind her.

"You  _are_  mildly entertaining." Holly shook her head and followed, leaning against the counter top next to the blonde as the server walked over.

"Champagne, please," Gail smiled at him sweetly. Holly loved this Gail, giddy and giggly, just as much as she loved the sultry, sulky, sarcastic one who always had something to say. She was so caught up in the other woman's complete adorableness, that she almost forgot to order, until the blonde turned to face her, smirking.

"Are you going to order, nerd? Or just stare at me all day?" she teased.

"Sorry, I think you have something in your teeth," Holly replied quickly, trying to pull off the most flippant expression she could muster, before turning to the server, "which red wines do you have?" When she glanced back at Gail, the blonde was running her finger nail down the small gap in between her front teeth.

Once they had received their drinks they walked back to the dance floor, where the crowd was starting to gather, sipping and talking. Holly decided that she loved making Gail laugh. She had always been a little self conscious of her own laugh, but she forgot about that completely when she was with Gail, who seemed to make her laugh frequently, especially tonight. A woman standing near to them called out first dance, and the newly married couple moved into the centre of what had become a circle of people, and she and Gail moved around to watch. Gail had this smile on her face as she watched them, Holly couldn't help herself.

"Admit it, you have a new found love of weddings," she teased, "Are you imagining yourself, on your wedding day, all dressed in white, having your first dance?" she added, holding her wine glass elegantly in one hand. She swirled it around before taking a sip, as she waited for Gail to reply. The blonde was shaking her head wryly.

"I don't think that's me," Gail replied, shooting her a pointed glance, "Maybe I'm just not the relationship type." She shrugged as though she could care less, whilst her tone said the opposite. Holly frowned.

"Nope, we will have none of this sadsack nonsense. It's time for you to dance!" she put her wine glass down on the closest table, and removed Gail's champagne glass from her hand, depositing it next to her own. The blonde rolled her eyes as she was dragged onto the dance floor, which people were now starting to move on to.

"Who under the age of sixty uses the phrase 'sadsack'?" But before she knew it, after Holly practically begging, she let loose, and danced. Holly wasn't quite sure what she expected, certainly not the awkward sidestep bop she used to do when she was younger, but Gail's dance moves were ridiculous. When she decided she didn't care what people thought, she honestly didn't care. Their dance was cut short when Holly began laughing so hard she gave herself a stitch, and Gail huffed at her for mocking her moves, and dragged her back over to the bar, left unattended, where she managed to pinch a whole bottle of champagne.

Gail led her back to the coatroom, still unattended as well. A fleeting thought crossed Holly's minds about irony and closets as Gail took a seat on the floor amongst the coat racks, grinning up at her. She had pulled a large, furry jacket of its hanger and placed it around her shoulders.

"Hollyyyyyy, join me," the blonde practically whined, patting the spot next to her. Holly laughed, shaking her head as sat down and stole the champagne bottle from her hand. She was going to  _need_  more champagne if Gail was going to keep being so adorable. She took a large swig of the bottle.

"I don't think I've ever had a lesbian friend before." Holly almost spat the champagne back out, choking on it momentarily before swallowing it down hard. She hadn't quite been expecting that. Gail had not batted a single eyelash about her sexuality since she mentioned it that first day, and it had been kind of nice how it had been such a nonissue. ' _Oh here it comes_ ' Holly thought, ' _The classic straight girl thing_.' She had to stop herself from sighing as she turned back towards the blonde, but then the look of mild intrigue on Gail's face stopped her thoughts dead in her tracks. There was just something different about her, that Holly couldn't put her finger on.

"Oh really?" Holly asked her casually, "That's so funny, I though 70% of female cops were lesbians?" she teased. Gail hit her lightly on the arm. She pursed her lips for a second, and for a flash there was the expression on her face of almost nervousness, like she was trying to find the courage to ask something. And then it was gone again, replaced with casual inquiry, like she was only asking questions to make conversation. Holly watched it all play out over her features, her stomach tightening.

"So what is it like, in a relationship between two girls?" Gail asked her, playing with the hem of a coat next to her. Holly smirked, taking another long mouthful of champagne to make Gail wait. The bubbles coursed down her throat and popped and gurgled down into her stomach, leaving a warm tingling sensation, heat coursing over her skin as the light alcohol seeped into her bloodstream.

"It's…. not that different, to with a guy. It all depends on the people involved. Obviously. But I guess there are small differences. It's been a while though, I'll admit, since I was in a serious relationship," she replied slowly.

"Okay. So, when you go on a date, who pays?" Gail asks, "The butch one?" she's smiling as she adds this, and Holly can tell she's only baiting her, so she glares at her playfully.

"That is incredibly old fashioned and stereotyped logic." She is responding, but Holly is watching Gail, observing the way the lighting is catching her blue eyes, which look brighter today. She is watching the cute facial expressions she makes while she talks, the way her eyebrows furrow, and her lips form words. Her lips. God, what she would give to kiss her, even just once. Gail is starting to ramble now, which is slightly uncharacteristic, and it's completely adorable, and as she is going on, all Holly is thinking is how badly she wants to just kiss her. So then when she bites back, in classic Gail fashion, to Holly's taunt, her eyes guarded and her mouth frowning grumpily, Holly can't help herself, and she leans forward and kisses her.

It's a short kiss, chaste, she presses her lips against Gail's and then pulls back almost immediately. The most surprising part of it all is  _not_  how gentle Gail's mouth is. It isn't the electric shock that seems to course through Holly's body, starting as a spark on her lips and ending in her stomach. The most surprising part is that Gail, just for a moment, kisses her back. Holly finds herself laughing at the slightly stunned look on Gail's face.

"You are insane, you know that right?" she quips, as though Gail is the crazy one, not her, who just kissed her new straight friend and has possibly ended that whole relationship in one stupid champagne fueled moment. But maybe if she plays this off, as no big deal, that's exactly what it will be. She rises to her feet, bottle still in hand.

"I'm gunna take this with me, if you don't mind? Plenty more out there."

As Holly walked out of the wedding reception, bag slung over her shoulder, half empty bottle of champagne still in one hand, she wanted to kick herself. Did she really just kiss Gail and then walk straight out? Maybe that was better though, then the awkward 'What does this mean? You know I don't swing that way, right?' conversation that would inevitably follow. This way it could remain the "remember that time at that wedding when you got so tipsy on cheap champagne you kissed me in the coatroom" story of their friendship. Not a big deal. Not something she was replaying over and over in her head as she waited for a taxi.

And waited. And waited. Holly was a particularly patient person, but she was itching to get in a car and leave the wedding as soon as possible, in order to put distance between herself and Gail. After twenty minutes she was seriously considering walking some of the way. Just as she was about to give up she heard heels clicking on the pavement behind her.

"I thought you left to go dancing," came Gail's voice behind her. She felt the blonde's fingers graze the back of her hand as she stood next to her, as though the had gone to hold it and then changed her mind at the last minute. Holly looked across at her, keeping her expression as calm as possible, but she could feel a warm blush touching the top of her cheek bones.

"I have been waiting for a taxi this whole time. My dancing buzz has died completely, now I would just like to go home and crawl into bed," she admits, shaking her head and looking back towards the road in vain hope of sighting a yellow taxi appearing out of the dark night. Nothing.

"Want a lift?" Gail asks, raising her eyebrows.

"I think you've had too much to drink to be driving, officer," Holly grins, shaking her head. The blonde pauses a moment, as if assessing the situation.

"That's true. Fancy a midnight walk then?" she asked, "I don't think there's going to be a cab any time soon, not with the party still raging on in there. I think I saw Dov and Chloe doing shots..." she sounded disturbed by this prospect, Holly didn't bother to enquire further, she had heard one or two venting conversations from Gail about Chloe, enough to know that if she queried she would end up getting an earful about overly chipper and obnoxious. She had an inkling that Chloe must have done something more than simply smile too much in order for Gail to dislike her as much as she did.

"Sure." She started to walk down the driveway towards the street, with Gail next to her. It was chilly, and feeling goosebumps crawling across her skin she began to wonder if it  _was_  such a good idea, when she felt a coat placed over her shoulders. She glanced across at Gail, now stripped back to her gold dress shimmering in the dark. The blonde was watching the road, expression completely placid, as though she hadn't just taken off her own jacket and given it to Holly.

"You want to watch you don't catch a cold," Holly commented, bumping her shoulder against Gail's playfully. The blonde smirked up at her.

"I thought cold weather couldn't be directly linked to the spread of the common cold, nerd."  _Touche_ , Holly thought to herself, but still couldn't help the slightly protective feeling she was getting towards the blonde.

"Have you been listening to everything I say all along?" She can sense Gail's hand hanging next to hers as they walk, a hairs breadth apart as they swing slightly with each step, almost touching, but never quite closing the distance.

"When someone talks as much as you do, I'm bound to take in something they say," the blonde quipped. They had walked a fair way from the hotel by now, at least two blocks further into the city, towards the main streets where a cab was much more common.

"Ugh, I just know that Dov is going to be bringing Chloe back to our apartment tonight. Ew. Nerd sex. How disgusting," she pulls a face, and Holly laughs.

"Am I included in that? Being a nerd and all," she asks, raising her eyebrows. Now that is towing the line. Gail's expression is unreadable as she looks down the street, as though trying to spot a taxi in the distance.

"Well I wouldn't know. It was only a kiss, Holly." She feels her cheeks burn at the reply, and turns the other way in the hopes that Gail wont see, when she feels the other woman's hand, small and soft, take hold of her own, pulling her back towards the blonde.

"I think I see a taxi," Gail tells her, one hand out flagging the cab down, the other still firmly holding onto Holly's. The car pulls up and Gail opens the back door, sliding inside, but keeping a grip on Holly's hand the entire time, despite how entirely impractical it is. The brunette slides in next to her onto the worn material seats. The inside of cabs smell like a thousand different indescribable things, not nice but usually not unpleasant, just... indescribable. Tonight however Holly can only smell the scent of Gail's perfume wafting around her. It's sweet, almost flowery but not quite.

"Holly?" Gail asks impatiently, as though she has asked before and gone unheard, "What's your address?" she asks. Holly quickly rattles it off and does up her seatbelt, one handed.

"I knew it was on the nice part of town," Gail is grinning at her, incredibly close, still holding her hand. Holly can just slightly smell the alcohol on her breath, she did after all have a few more glasses of champagne than Holly did, it mingles with her perfume.

"Are you ever going to tell me about this cat, tree, boyfriend story, over which you had the epiphany in my morgue?" Holly asks her as the cab starts exiting the main part of the city in the direction of her apartment. Gail would usually blow this question off with any multitude of quips or comments, or simply answer 'no' in a childish manner, flashing her a smile, and changing the subject completely. This time she pauses a moment. Maybe she is finally drunk enough to tell the story, like she said, or maybe she finally trusts Holly enough to divulge in her something a secret, something that makes her vulnerable.

"My last boyfriend..." she starts, pauses again, sounding uncomfortable, but then takes a deep breath, "went in deep undercover with one of my best friends, fell in love with her, stayed with me anyway, and then when I found out, I didn't know how to break up with him, so I slept with someone else and then told him about it, so that he'd break up with me." Holly wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Oh. Wow. I have never quite had a breakup story that good." She felt stupid as soon as she said it, but it seemed to make Gail smile, if only for a second. She squeezed the blonde's hand gently.

"Well it really sounds like it was  _all_  his fault," she added. Gail laughed.

"Well obviously." But she didn't seem convinced of that at all.

As the car pulled up outside Holly's apartment block, she didn't really want to get out. Opening the door she climbed out onto the side walk, and turned back to find Gail following after her. The blonde leant back in towards the driver.

"Leave the meter running, I'll be right back, I'm just walking her in," she told him before closing the door. She shrugged when she looked back and saw Holly's questioning gaze.

"You are  _quite_  the gentleman, aren't you, Officer," she teased as they walked into the lobby. Gail simply rolled her eyes, pressing the up button and leaning against the wall casually.

"I was raised quite well mannered, if  _that's_  what you mean," Gail informed her, just before the elevator doors opened and they both stepped in. Holly leant against the back wall, and the blonde leant next to her, their elbows touching. As the floors went past she began to feel nervous, though she wasn't sure why, her stomach twisting and flipping. When they reached her floor and stepped out she noticed Gail seemed to look a little awkward also, following her to her apartment door.

"Thank you for walking me to my door. I feel quite safe," Holly felt stupid as soon as she'd said it, quite safe? Who said that? That was not how you seduce a straight girl. Quite safe. Ugh, she wanted to bang her head against the wall.

"Thank you for being my plus one, I'm not sure I would have made it through the wedding without you." Gail was fidgeting slightly with her hands.

"Goodnight, officer." Holly smiled.  _That was much more smooth_. She was feeling quite proud of herself, until the blonde pushed up onto her toes, leaning forward, and kissed her. Not like the coatroom kiss. Not small and chaste. Gail's hand snaked around the back of Holly's neck. Her tongue brushed Holly's, and then she slowly pulled back, and Holly could see straight into those electric blue eyes. Gail looked incredibly confused.

"Goodnight nerd." She pulled back as fast as she'd moved forward, and suddenly she was completely outside of Holly's personal bubble, and then she was walking away, towards the elevators. Holly wanted to go after her, to ask her what the hell that was. She stopped herself though, she waited till the blonde was out of sight, and then she put her key in the door, and walked inside. She left the lights off, and kicked her shoes into a corner, dropped her bag and coat onto the foot of the lounge. What the hell  _was_  that? She had gone from thinking she knew exactly what was going on, just classic Holly crushing on a straight girl who would never think of her as anything more than that, to now... having no idea what to think. She should've know from that first day that Gail Peck was going to make her head spin.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you so so much for all your incredibly sweet comments and reviews. Hope you guys had a great new years eve! I am in my new apartment, but have no internet hooked up yet, so I am currently mooching off my girlfriend's mobile to upload this.

Holly knew Gail well enough to decide that she should wait and let the blonde text her first if she didn't want to freak her out. She knew that, but after two days without a single word she was starting to go crazy. On day three she couldn't stop herself from at least sending something. She wouldn't mention the kiss of course, either of them, she'd just send something mundane. She picked up the red coat still sitting on the end of her couch, arranged it neatly, took a photo on her phone and sent it to Gail with the text ' _If you want to receive your coat back in one piece, leave two hundred dollars in a brown paper bag in the George St Diner by 7pm tonight_ '. She smirked to herself at her own wit, and then slumped down onto the couch with the phone in one hand and the TV remote in the other and waited. Twenty minutes later she'd just about given up, settling in to an old episode of Waking The Dead on repeat, when her phone went off.

' _Are you trying to blackmail a cop? I thought you were smart, nerd_.' Holly felt herself grin as she read the reply.

' _Bring the police into this, and I will have no choice but to kill the coat._ '

' _I don't think you will. I have a hostage of my own. You do realise you left your own coat at the wedding, right? Tracy gave it to me to give back to you_.' _  
_

' _Maybe we should arrange a swap. Are you free tonight?_ ' Holly nervously fidgeted with her glasses. Maybe she was pushing it, but she wanted to see Gail so badly, three days was too long. Three days of thinking and pondering over and remembering in vivid detail that kiss in the hallway. The feel of Gail's mouth, her tongue, those fingers brushing the back of her neck. She got shivers down her spine. Her phone went off again, breaking the trance.

' _Some of us actually have to work, Holly_.' Ouch. What was that? Holly frowned, reading the message a second time. Gail could certainly bite when she was feeling defensive.

' _And do you not have a single break in your busy schedule, in which I could drop by to switch coats?'_

' _You know my coat is much nicer than yours, maybe you should keep it, add a bit of flair to your wardrobe?_ ' The brunette smirked, turning off the television and sitting up a little. _  
_

' _Red may look stunning on you, but it makes_ me _look like little red riding hood_.' She dropped the phone onto her coffee table and stood up, giving up on the idea of seeing Gail tonight, and heading into the kitchen. It looked like she'd be cooking dinner for one, again. She should have known that the kiss meant nothing. She turned on the stove top, after several failed attempts to get the gas working it finally started up and stayed. She was putting the rice on when she heard her phone go off in the other room. It took a large amount of self restraint not to run back into the living room, but she forced herself to stir the pot once, and then casually walk back in, as though Gail would somehow be able to tell if she was too anxious to read her reply.

' _You thought I looked stunning? Nerd, I think you have a bit of a crush on me. I have a date tonight, maybe tomorrow?_ ' Holly felt a lump form in her throat. Did Gail really just say both those things in the one text message? Her stomach twisted, not in the giddy way it did when Gail smiled at her or trailed her fingers up her arm absentmindedly, but in a jealous way. It was a cold sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She started texting back, but stopped herself. If Gail couldn't go two days without saying a word to her, she could do the same back. She left the mobile on the couch and went back to her dinner. _  
_

One home made stir fry and three reruns later, Holly was slumped on the couch with a file open in front of her, working on a small case from 15th. Dov had been the officer on duty, and his notes were incredibly amusing to read due in part, but not entirely, because of his awkwardly placed spelling mistakes. It was dark and the only light she had on was a small lamp next to her, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose as she made out his scrawled handwriting. Suddenly a knock came at the door. She wasn't expecting anyone, and in fact, who on earth would be at her door this late at night? She put the file down on the coffee table and got up, walking to the entrance and peering through the peep hole cautiously. Through the small hole, in its slightly warped vision, she could see Gail, dressed in a fitting black shirt, a thick black coat, makeup done, hair pulled back neatly, scuffing her foot impatiently on the carpet. She unlatched the lock and opened the door.

"Hi," she pushed her glasses up her nose again. Gail walked in, right past her and took a seat on the lounge, making herself comfortable.

"I have just been on possibly the worst date of my  _life_ ," she announced dramatically with a groan. Holly felt happier about this than she probably should have. She closed the door and took a seat on the coffee table.

"Sure Gail, come on in," she used her most sarcastic tone, raising her eyebrows incredulously at the blonde splayed out on her couch. Blue eyes pierced her own.

"He had an English accent, but he only lived there for two years. Two Holly. What kind of pompous asshole does that? ugh." Much as she wanted to feign mild indifference, Holly couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow, that really is awful." Gail looked up at her.

"You're telling  _me_. Why do I let my mother set me up? I should have known this was a bad idea, just like it was last year." The blonde's neat hair was starting to come undone, small strands pulling their way free and falling around her pale face.

"You let your mother set you up?" Holly was bemused, "Don't you hate your mother?" Gail rolled her eyes.

"Technically, yes, but, I don't know, I thought maybe it would be a good idea," she mumbled, "Do you have coffee? I would love a hot, non-festive, coffee right about now." The brunette shook her head and rose to her feet. What an incredibly deflective answer, how very Gail.

"I think I can manage that." Whilst the kettle was boiling she leant back around the corner, to find Gail was standing by her bookshelf, reading the spine of every novel and magazine, running her fingers along them. She had that look again, suddenly serious when nobody was looking, like she had that day in the morgue, just taking it all in thoughtfully. Holly retreated quietly back into the kitchen.

"Sugar?" she called out, hoping she wouldn't startle the blonde from her trance.

"Three," Gail replied distractedly.

When Holly came back out, two steaming mugs of coffee in her hands, she found the other woman standing by the small mantle. It took her a moment to realise what she must be doing there, and when it dawned on her, her cheeks started to flush.

"I don't think you want to look at those," she urged, moving forward to place the mugs down on the coffee table. Gail looked back at her, smirking.

"Is this you?" she asked, holding the picture up. From inside the frame grinned a lanky thirteen year old, with pretty eyes and braces with bright green bands. Holly's cheeks were red as she tried, and failed, to snatch it back off Gail. The blonde held it behind her back.

"So you  _were_  always a nerd, huh?" she teased, glancing back at the picture, "A pretty cute one though," she added, winking. Holly's blush, if possible, deepened. She stepped forward into Gail's personal space, attempting to grab it, and finding her body pressed up against the blonde's. Gail suddenly gave in and handed it back. The glass was slightly dusty, and Holly wiped it and put it on the mantle again.

"Where you by any chance in the school band?" Gail asked her, sitting down on the couch and picking up her cup of coffee. The brunette took a seat next to her, blowing gently on the top of her coffee before taking a long sip.

"Yes." she replied, against her better judgement, and waited for the mockery.

"So was I," Gail replied, much to her surprise. She obviously noticed the slightly stunned look on Holly's face, because she laughed and put her cup back down for a moment, shrugging and adding, "tuba, just to add to the embarrassment of it all. Believe me, not my own choice. Apparently it's a long running tradition in the Peck family." At this she rolled her eyes dramatically.

"I never would have picked it," Holly laughed, shaking her head, mug of coffee clasped between her hands, "Maybe we would have been friends in high school after all." The blonde gave her a quizzical look at the last comment, so she felt the need to sheepishly add, "I was just thinking the other day, that if we had gone to the same high school I didn't think you would have even noticed me, never mind befriended me. Maybe I was wrong."

"Oh no, I definitely would have been too cool for you," Gail teased, "this is  _me_  we're talking about." Holly had to laugh, only Gail would come out with such a response.

"You know it could be interpreted as a little self absorbed to have pictures of yourself on your mantle," the blonde nudged her knee gently, sipping on her coffee. Those blue eyes were twinkling mischievously, in that adorable way they seemed to do whenever she was mocking Holly. The brunette smiled, glancing over at the photograph again.

"My mother took it of me on my birthday," she replied slowly, as though this was a sufficient explanation. Gail wasn't so easily pleased, and prodded further.

"You must like your mother, because I would never display a picture of myself for the reason of my mother having taken it," the other woman laughed at the idea, and then looked back to Holly, the smile suddenly dropping from the corners of her mouth when she seemed to realise maybe there was a serious reason for it then.

"We were very close when I was growing up," Holly murmured fondly, staring into her coffee cup. The room suddenly felt quiet, and when she looked back up the other girl was watching her, expression quite serious. Those eyes could be so electric one moment and so haunting the next. Gail reached out and placed her hand softly on Holly's knee. The touch felt soothing, unlike previous contact with Gail which had been electric and stomach clenching, this touch was comforting. The brunette smiled softly and shook her head.

"So tell me more about Gail Peck playing the tuba," she insisted, and Gail seemed to catch on that she didn't want to talk about this any more tonight, and went along quite willingly with the sudden subject change.

"Well for one, it was almost as big as I was."

...

Another cup of coffee and a slightly hyper Gail later it was almost midnight, and her and Holly were still sitting on Holly's couch. The blonde was in the midst of explaining how she had once taken part in the birthing of a child, when Holly noticed the time.

"Crap," she muttered at a pause in Gail's dramatic narrative, "I didn't realize how late it was." The blonde looked back behind her at the clock on the wall and cringed.

"Ugh, I do not know how I am going to sleep after all that caffeine," she whined. Even as she said this she was fidgeting with her hands as they sat in her lap. Holly leaned forward and put her own hands on top of them to keep them still.

"I can tell," she laughed, "This is the second time I have ever seen you fidget so much, you're usually little miss stoic." Gail looked up at her, head ever so slightly tilted to the left, and suddenly Holly felt her heart thud a little heavier as she realized she was sitting on her couch in the middle of the night with Gail, holding the other woman's hands, their faces only inches apart.

"What other time have you ever seen me fidget?" Gail asked, raising her eyebrows. The brunette felt herself blush when she remembered that one other instance, and suddenly wished she had kept her mouth firmly shut. She pulled her hands back away from the blondes and started to get to her feet.

"Don't distract me, you need to get home missy, don't you have plans with Tracy tomorrow?" she changed the subject as she collected the empty mugs off the coffee table and took them into the kitchen. Behind her she heard Gail groan loudly and flop back into the sofa cushions.

"How am I ever going to get to sleep?" she grumbled.  _I could certainly think of some ways to wear you out_ , Holly thought to herself as she rinsed the mugs out. Distracted, she slipped and scolded her hand on the hot water, blushing as she realized where her mind had been wandering.

"Do you want a lift home?" she called out, her voice cracking just a little on the first word. She wiped her hands and walked back into the living room, leaning over the back of the couch to where Gail was lying, staring back up at her.

"Nah, I have my car. Believe me, I am awake enough to drive." The blonde smiled at her and she smiled back, leaning down and brush a strand of hair away from Gail's eyes. God, she was bad at this being friends thing. She quickly retracted the hand and cleared her throat.

"I better get your coat for you," she looked around to see where the blonde had flung it. Knowing Gail she had taken it off, thrown it somewhere and then not given it a second thought. She spotted it hanging over the back of a chair, but as she got closer she realized it wasn't Gail's coat, it was her own, the one she'd left at the wedding. She had been so surprised to see the other woman standing at her door she hadn't even noticed.

"I figured I'd better return in," Gail walked up behind her, grinning proudly.

"Did you go all the way home again after your date to get it?" Holly asked, shaking her head as she walked over to the stand by the front door where she had left Gail's red coat hanging.

"No, I came straight here from the date." The brunette smiled to herself.

"So, you liked my coat  _so_  much, you wore it on your date? I knew you secretly loved my clothes," she teased as she handed the jacket back. The blonde glared at her. Holly could tell she wanted to argue back, but had no retaliation that wouldn't force her to admit something else, so she slipped the red coat on and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"I hope I didn't bore you  _too_  much," Holly said, opening the front door to let the blonde out. Gail followed and paused in the threshold. Here they were again, saying goodnight at Holly's apartment door. The brunette's throat felt dry. She licked her lips nervously, staring at Gail's feet as the other woman shifted from foot to foot in her heels.

"Goodnight, Holly," the blonde reached out and touched her arm from a moment, and then pulled back again, taking a step out into the hall. Holly looked back up, smiling sheepishly.

"Night Gail." She watched Gail walk away around the corner to the lifts. No goodnight kiss this time around, maybe that was a sign that it really was just a one off, too much champagne kind of thing.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day had seemed, at the beginning, like it would be just another day. Holly woke up at five, went for a jog, took a hot shower, ate scrambled eggs on toast, and texted Gail as she made her morning coffee ' _Manage to get much sleep, caffeine addict?_ ' She took a mouthful and looked out her kitchen window. Blue skies always felt promising. She held the warm mug between her hands for a moment, and then continued on with her morning routine. Gail didn't text back till Holly was dressed and heading out the door ' _I feel surprisingly good for someone who only got four hours sleep._ ' Ten minutes later, as she was driving with her stereo on loud, she heard her phone vibrating loudly on the center console. At the next light she glanced at the screen. ' _Scratch that, mood killed, Chris and Dov just arrived with annoying and annoying-er. There goes my relaxing day off_.' Holly shook her head and looked back to the road, bemused.

She'd only been at work a few hours, deep in paperwork, when she got another text from Gail ' _I'm coming in now with some blood samples, can you put a rush on them for me?_ ' Holly's stomach started to feel uneasy already.

' _Sure, no problem. I'll clear my schedule_.' She didn't bother asking anything further until Gail actually came in, she knew there'd be no point, the blonde obviously wasn't feeling chatty. She finished off the write up for the file she was working on, and was just putting it away when the blonde burst through the doors, evidence bag in hand. She walked straight up, without a single hello or good morning, and handed Holly the plastic bag containing the swabs. The brunette accepted without a word and began preparing the equipment. Gail didn't speak for the next five minutes, just followed her around and stared intently at whatever she was doing.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Holly finally asked, "I kind of need to know what I'm looking for."

"Missing kid," Gail replied, her voice was softer than usual, "the blood was found in the car he was taken from, could be his, or could be his abductors." Holly nodded, starting up the initial analysis. As the machine began work she turned back to the blonde.

"Gail, come on, you are far more invested in this case than I have ever seen you. Who is this kid?" she prompted, reaching her hand out automatically to touch Gail's where it sat on table, but quickly stopping herself before she made contact.

"Christian. Chris' son," the blonde finally replied, scuffing the clean plastic flooring with her uniform black boot. Holly grimaced.

"Oh. Gail, I'm sure you guys will find him, okay?" she reached out and put her hand on Gail's arm, gently squeezing it, "This is my top priority, you have my word." Gail nodded, and pulled out of the touch.

"Do you want a coffee? I owe you one, after last night," she was already pulling out her wallet and moving towards the door, "that place down the street, right?" Holly smiled softly,  _she remembered_.

"Yeah, actually, that would be amazing." She didn't even have time to tell Gail her order and the blonde was already out the door.

…

While Gail called in to the station to report Holly's findings so far, Holly took a nervous sip of the coffee Gail had brought her. The hot beverage washed over her tongue and she sighed contently. How did Gail remember her exact order from the one she had mentioned her weird coffee drinking habits the night before? She didn't even care as she gulped it down and continued taking notes from the data. Her eyes flicked over to the blonde momentarily, who's expression was serious again as she relayed the message.

"Any leads yet?" Gail asked at the end nervously. Whatever news she received obviously wasn't good, the blonde ended the call curtly and pulled up a stool next to Holly. They sat in silence as Holly worked and Gail watched. Holly could feel the blonde's eyes on her.

"Staring won't make this go faster," Holly told her, shooting Gail a small smile. The blonde glared back playfully, hitting Holly lightly on the arm.

"Maybe I just like looking at you," she replied, wiggling her eyebrows. Holly was glad to see her relax a little, finally. She grinned smugly.

"I  _bet_  you do." Gail laughed, pulling a face at her, and she felt her stomach somersault. When was the last time she had liked someone this much this fast? She couldn't even remember. She was usually so rational going into relationships, she wasn't the type to just fall hard and fast, she'd been burnt once from that and learnt quickly.  _Wait, going into relationships? Holly, this is a friendship._ She pulled her focus back to the screen in front of her. Now wasn't the time to be flirting or obsessively over-thinking her own feelings. She managed to keep her mouth shut for about ten minutes, before she found herself asking,

"What are you doing tonight?" She kept her eyes fixed firmly on the screen, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Gail shifting awkwardly in her seat.

"I have, um, another date, actually," she admitted. Holly frowned at her notebook, but kept writing. She pressed down so hard her pen went through the paper and made a small hole in the middle of the word.

"Another sergeant mum set up?" she asked, coming across more bitter then she intended to let on. Gail looked up at her, blue eyes striking even in the dull lab lighting. She nodded, eyes boring into the side of Holly's face. Holly couldn't help her mild annoyance, and was determined to hold on to it, which she could only do if she stopped herself from looking back. One glance at those gorgeous blue eyes and she would be gone.

"So I should be expecting you again around ten thirty, when it all goes wrong?" the brunette sniped, eyes boring into the screen in front of her, determined to keep her focus.

"Maybe. Would you mind?" Gail asked, in an uncharacteristically shy tone. Holly looked across at her, and those eyes caught her, the softest blue, almost a shade lighter than normal. She smiled softly.

"Of course not."

…

Holly watched Gail gather her things and head for the door, and she wished she didn't have to go. The blonde paused in the doorway and looked back. Strands of her hair fell loose and brushed her cheeks. She looked like a slightly flustered mess, unlike her usual down to business self when she was at work.

"Thanks Holly," she smiled. And then suddenly she was on the move again, her mind back on task, determined.

"Good luck!" Holly called back, Gail already halfway down the hall. Her lab suddenly felt quiet and empty. For a moment she felt lost, and then she scanned over her desk and quickly had made up a mental list of several tasks to do before she finished for the night. She sighed and dived in headfirst, taking on a recent case and finishing the write up for forensic analysis of fibres found on the scene. Usually at work she was driven and focused. She loved what she did, and even the most boring of tasks she could find passion for when she thought about how it fit into the jigsaw puzzle of the justice system. Today was the first time in a long time she found herself distracted, every so often checking her phone for an update, glancing at the time to see how long she had left before she could call it a night and not feel guilty about it. Her hand began to cramp a little as she typed, and she stopped to stretch her fingers, rolling her wrists till they clicked. Tonight definitely felt like a night to hit the batting cages, and take out all her pent up frustration by hitting small balls with a wooden stick as hard as she could. She'd been doing this since she was a kid. It had always been her dad's way of coping and he had passed it on to her.

It was starting to get late, and she was beginning to wrap up work, having received word from Gail via text that Christian had been found. The blonde was stuck doing all her paperwork before she could leave, which included forensics seeing as she'd been at the lab with Holly for most of the day, so every ten or so minutes Holly would get a text asking her how to word something, or if she could explain something that Gail didn't understand. ' _If i keep going at this snail pace I'm going to be late for my date_.' Holly smirked, the thought crossing her mind for a moment to slow the other woman down by giving her extra in-depth analysis to add to her notes. But she liked Gail too much to be so cruel, so she refrained, instead replying ' _Gosh, we wouldn't want that_.' She knew her sarcasm would translate, Gail knew her well enough by now, which was odd being as it had only been a short few weeks.

She finally finished for the night, at least enough of her list completely so that she didn't feel too guilty. She placed a couple of files in her brief case to take home with her and began packing up her things. She was walking to her car when her phone started going off, and she awkwardly fumbled through her pocket, jacket slung over one arm, to retrieve it. She answered and heard Gail's soft voice on the other end.

"Hey."

"Hi," Holly echoed back, mildly surprised.

"What are you doing tonight?" Gail asked, her tone completely changed from earlier that day, a modicum of her sass back but also a gentleness that wasn't there before. Holly loved the sound of it.

"Going to the batting cages, buying Chinese take out and then waiting for a certain blonde cop to turn up at my apartment door," she replied lightly. Gail laughed, and the sound was different through a phone line, but it was a laugh none the less. It was good just to hear it again. Today had freaked Holly out a little, she hadn't seen Gail like that before.

"The batting cages? Really Holly? Could you be any gayer?" the blonde teased, but sounded like she was in fact slightly perturbed by the idea.

"It's a good way to let off steam and take out built up frustration," she answered as she reached her car and unlocked the side door, throwing her things into the back. There was a pause on the other end.

"What kind of frustration do you need to take out, Holly?" Gail's voice had turned suddenly sultry, a gravelly quality laden in her softly spoken words, sending goosebumps crawling down the back of Holly's neck. She swallowed hard as she slipped into the passenger seat.

"Work. Stuff." she spat out awkwardly, and the blonde giggled down the line. Holly could hear the sound of her locker door closing, she was obviously at the station, finishing up for the day.

"Okay," Gail replied, "Pick me up in twenty." The brunette paused for a moment, her key in the ignition about to reverse out of the car park. Had she missed a part of the conversation? Was this in reference to something, a in-joke she'd forgotten? She adjusted her glasses nervously.

"Did I miss something?" she asked, "Don't you have a date tonight?"

"Yes, I do, a certain nerd is taking me to the batting cages. I'll be waiting out the front of my apartment, don't be late, okay?" And then she hung up. Holly looked at the phone in her hand, confused. She pulled out onto the street and began heading towards Gail's place. Twenty minutes wouldn't be enough time to go all the way home and change, she was stuck wearing her t-shirt and jeans. Five minutes away from Gail's place she pulled over on the side of the road and checked her hair in her car mirror, before continuing on. When she arrived at the front the blonde was waiting, as promised, right on the curb. She jumped in as soon as the car came to a stop.

"I've never been to the batting cages before," Gail announced as she put on her seatbelt. Holly smiled, bemused, as she took in the other woman, hair still in a loose pony tail, a slightly baggy woollen sweater sitting over a black singlet. How did she look so gorgeous when she hadn't even tried? The brunette bit her lip and pulled back onto the road.

"I used to go there all the time with my dad," she confessed, "That's where he always went when he was stressed at work, or angry, or sad. He went there a lot after my mum died, and that's when he started taking me with him." She was looking at the road but she could feel those electric blue eyes watching her again.

"When was that?" Gail asked.

"When I was thirteen," she replied, "So how is Christian, by the way?" she changed the subject as she turned onto the main road.

"He's okay I think, just very scared and very happy to be back with his parents," the blonde replied, "I don't even know how Chris must be right now though." Gail looked concerned, and she knew it was entirely valid, but Holly felt just a twinge of jealousy, before she remembered that she had no right to.

"So what was the deal with you guys?" she asked casually. Gail raised her eyebrows, looking unimpressed, but Holly pursued anyway.

"You dated, right?"

"How do you know that?" The blonde was frowning, her tone and expression suddenly guarded again.

"Some of the 'lab nerds' are terrible gossips. I try not to partake, but they're always talking in the lunch room, it's hard not to over hear," Holly admitted, blushing slightly. Gail seemed to soften at this though.

"Yeah. A long time ago. Don't worry, he's no competition," she grinned as she said it, blue eyes sparkling cheekily. The brunette's blush deepened as she tried to scoff and play it off.

"As if anyone could compete with  _me_."

"You don't really pull off the conceded thing," Gail laughed, shaking her head as they pulled into the parking lot. The batting cages were in the industrial part of town, located in a large warehouse. From out the front, even Holly could admit, they didn't look like much. She could see Gail sizing the place up, and not looking particularly impressed.

"It's better inside, I promise."

…

"Come on, just try  _one_  more time, and then I promise we can get Chinese," Holly tried to convince Gail, holding the bat out towards her. The blonde was sitting in one of the uncomfortable plastic seats next to the office, claiming laughing stitch as reason for her inability to try again. The brunette nealt down in front of her, doing her best puppy dog eyes, unconvincingly it seemed, Gail shook her head again.

"I'll show you how, I'll be right there with you. If the ball comes too close, I promise I'll dive in front and save you. Gail, come on, one hit," she pleaded. The blonde sighed heavily.

"Is agreeing the only way to make you stop?" she asked, sounding defeated. Holly grinned excitedly, rising back to her feet and offering the other woman her hand.

"Yes, it is," she confirmed, pulling Gail up, and then dragging her by the same hand back towards the free cage. She led the blonde into the middle, onto the plate. Gail followed with as much resistance and least enthusiasm as possible.

"Now," Holly instructed, "you stand side on, like this," she took hold of the blonde's shoulders and moved her around into position, "legs a liiiittle further apart than that." Gail stared at her blankly, so she reached down and placed her hand on the inside of Gail's thigh, just above her knee, and pushed her leg slightly.

"That's better, okay now, show me how you hold the bat," she demanded. Gail glared at her but took the bat, swinging it back behind in ready position. Holly observed, trying not to stare at Gail's ass, and failing, and then moved in again, reaching up and gently shifting Gail's hands on the bat.

"You're choking too much," she explained, as the blonde watched her.

"What, you're not going to stand behind me and put your hands around me and teach me how to swing?" Gail quipped, "Isn't that what they do in all the movies?"  _That idea is actually quite appealing_. Holly laughed and stepped back giving Gail some space.

"Now take a practice swing," she insisted. Gail swung the bat meekly and Holly observed, watching the way she moved her arms and her body.

"Hmm, okay," she came up behind the blonde, and put her arms around her, gripping the bat over the top of Gail's hands. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Gail blushing.

"See now, you need to swing more like this," she moved the blonde's arms back into ready position, and then swung through cleanly, "you see?" Gail nodded mutely.

"I'm going to turn the machine on now, and I want you do exactly what I just showed you, okay?" she walked over to the button, hand hovering over it. She watched Gail take a deep breath and roll her shoulders in preparation. When the blonde gave her a thumbs up she pressed down, and a ball fired out directly over the plate. Gail swung perfectly, but a fraction too late, and completely missed it. She blinked for a second and then looked back.

"How was that?"

"It was exactly right, except that you swung a little too late," Holly laughed, "go again!" She waited till the blonde was in position and then pressed the button. She could see Gail flexing her fingers around the bat. When the ball fired she waited a second, watching it, and then swung hard. There was  _crack_ , the sound of baseball on wood, and the ball went flying back into the fence, so hard it caught in the wire and stayed there. Gail turned back to look at her, positively grinning from ear to ear.

"I hit it!" she cried, "I hit it!" running towards Holly and flinging her arms around her. When she pulled back she was smirking proudly.

"This means you're paying for dinner, right?" she asked. Holly laughed and nodded, lifting the helmet up off of her head and slipping it under her arm instead.

"Of course, it's a victory celebration, the winning batter never has to pay."

…

As they walked through the door of the small Chinese takeaway shop, Gail was still riding on the high of the one ball she managed to hit, talking animatedly about how maybe they should make this a monthly thing, where they go down to the batting cages and Holly teachers her how to hit. The brunette laughed and agreed, against her better judgement. Gail just seemed thrilled by the fact that for once was not a total failure at some kind of sport. The woman behind the counter smiled as they approached.

"Holly!" she greeted cheerfully, "Your usual order tonight? Or maybe you order something different, you have friend with you." She smiled at Gail knowingly. The blonde looked sideways, raising her eyebrows at Holly.

"How often exactly do you come here?" she teased. The brunette ignored her comment and began ordering several different dishes and three serves of rice.

"It is just going to be us tonight, right?" Gail asked as the woman took the order out the back, "I think you just ordered enough for a whole family."

"You said you love to eat. And I thought you might be hungry, what with the physical exertion of hitting a ball and all," she quipped in return. The blonde grinned at her as she took a seat to wait.

"That is actually very true," she admitted, "I do love food. And you ordered Kung Pow Chicken, so I am totally set." Holly took a set next to her, leaning her arms on the wonky arm rests of the chair. It was funny how she had been to this same dingy, small takeaway shop so many times, and there was nothing different about it, but it felt so different tonight. Despite the badly chosen white square tiled flooring and the fluorescent lighting, it had an air of possibility. Gail's arm was siting next to hers, and their hands were dangling side by side. Every once in a while Gail's pinky just lightly brushed her own, so lightly in fact that Holly wasn't even sure if it was really happening or all in her head. Never had she been so confused by a girl, so jerked around. Not even by her college fling, who reasonably ruined her for taking risks and falling without thinking, had made her head spin this much. She knew, rationally speaking, that the best thing to do was to just ask Gail what they were doing, what was going on, what she was thinking and feeling. But she was terrified that she would scare her, and that she would loose even this odd, unlabelled, kind of more than friendship, flirting, and kissing one time  _thing._ And the smart thing, if Gail truly didn't feel that way about her, would be to stop it now. But she couldn't.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am really really nervous about this chapter, so I hope you guys like it.
> 
> Thank you infinitely to all the kind people who read, leave kudos, or especially take the time to bother to leave a comment. You are all slowly inflating my ego, and giving me the encouragement to keep writing this on those days where I hate everything I type. (Which has happened a few times recently)
> 
> If you guys have any feedback, I really appreciate it.
> 
> (Also just going to float this idea - I had the thought to write this whole story again from Gail's perspective, but is this totally crazy and ridiculous? Would any of you bother to read that? let me know!)
> 
> Special thanks to Maryaun who lets me whine to her about this story when I am struggling with it. If you haven't already started reading her fic My Best Friend, do it now!

The night was cool around her limbs as she walked, arms laden with plastic bags full of takeaway Chinese food that swung awkwardly and bumped into her sides. Gail was walking ahead of her by two paces. Something was different about her tonight that Holly couldn't put her finger on. The blonde turned around and begun walking backwards, facing Holly, her hair loose now, elastic band tight around her wrist instead. Her woollen knit sweater moved around her body with each step she took, shifting again and again, falling in different folds, highlighting how tightly her singlet must be clinging to her petite figure.

"So do you take all your dates to the Happy Garden Chinese Restaurant?" Gail asked her, her tone intended to come across as teasing, but Holly could read the inquisitive undercurrent. She quickened her pace to walk next to the blonde, who turned around to face the right way again.

"Only the ones I don't like very much," Holly quipped back, going to bump Gail gently with her elbow, and instead accidentally hitting her in the side with one of the bags of food.

"Yikes, I won't try questioning  _you_  again," the blonde laughed, taking a small step away. Holly cursed her own awkwardness, how did she manage to forget the heavy bulky thing attached to her arm? She switched it over to the other arm, on the opposite side to where Gail walked.

"I thought cops were supposed to be tough. Is that all it takes to scare off Gail Peck?" she teased, and then added, "I haven't actually been on a date in quite some time," as they approached her building, and she reached into her pockets for the keys. Gail pushed the door open and held it for her as she walked in. The lobby was quiet and their footsteps echoed on the stone tiling.

"I wonder why," Gail replied sarcastically as she pushed the button, and Holly frowned, taken aback. What was that supposed to mean. She couldn't help but feel hurt by the blunt severity of the statement.

"I'm sorry, what?" Gail raised her eyebrows in an expression that said, 'you really need to ask', but then realised that maybe it wasn't as obvious to Holly as it was to her and softened quickly.

"No, well I mean, how would you ever meet someone? Every time I talk to you, you seem to be working, or home on your own, or you're with me," she explained, shrugging, as though it wasn't really that big of a deal, "You're never going to meet a cute girl if you don't, like, put yourself out there." Holly could feel that sensation in her stomach again, that cold heavy feeling.  _Right, meet a cute girl. Because I don't already have one._ She felt herself sighing as the elevator doors opened.

"What? Oh, crap, did I do something? Dov says I'm always putting my foot in it," Gail cringed as she followed, and as Holly leant against the back wall of the elevator the blonde leant next to her, reaching out and putting a hand on Holly's arm, "I wasn't trying to make fun of you, nerd." The brunette shook her head and put on her best fake smile.

"No, it's fine. Very true," she conceded as the doors opened on her floor, and she quickly walked around to her apartment, unlocking it and letting them in. Inside it was dark, and as she paused in the entryway to kick off her shoes the blonde ran into her from behind, and giggled as she closed the door behind her.

"Sorry." Gail's voice was soft and husky, her hand finding Holly's and holding onto it in the dark as she removed her own shoes as well, and Holly heard them each falling into a pile in the vague vicinity of her shoe rack,  _thunk, thunk_. The brunette didn't move for a moment, and Gail didn't either.

"Some light would be pretty good about now," came a quip from the dark next to her, and the hand slipped out of her grip. Suddenly the living room light flickered on, and the blonde was across the other side of the room at the light switch. Holly smiled tightly and dumped the food onto the coffee table.

"Dig in, I'm just going to change into something a little less sweaty," she told Gail, indicating to the t-shirt she had been wearing all day. She walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind her, leaning back against it and taking a long, deep breath.  _Of course by date she didn't actually mean date, you moron_. She groaned and ran a hand through her messy hair, sweeping it back away from her face. She pulled her t-shirt up over head head and dropped it neatly into her laundry basket. She undid the button of her jeans and wiggled them down over her hips until they fell into a pile of denim around her ankles, and she was able to kick them in next to the t-shirt. The air felt cold over her exposed skin and she pulled open her dresser draw, searching around for something to wear, pulling out a comfortable pair of pyjama shorts and slipping them on. She was rooting around for a shirt when the bedroom door burst open, and Gail walked in.

"Listen, about what I said before, I- I feel like I really upset you, or something, and-" she paused then, cheeks going red as her eyes found Holly, standing next to the bed in a small pair of cotton pyjama shorts and a bra, "oh." Gail's eyes turned a different shade of blue then Holly had ever seen them, darker, as they raked up her body slowly.

"Sorry, I didn't… Right, changing, of course. God Gail," the blonde mumbled, embarrassed, and went to leave before pausing at the door, "We should talk. When you're, you know, actually clothed." The door shut loudly behind her. Holly fell back onto her bed, placing her hands over her eyes. Why didn't she wear the red bra with the lace this morning, she had to choose her practical white semi-sports bra.

When she stepped back out into the living room, she found Gail had made herself comfortable on the couch, legs crossed and a bowl of food in her lap. She was awkwardly trying to shovel the rice into her mouth with a pair of chopsticks, but half of what she'd picked up fell back off before it reached her mouth every time. Holly smiled softly as she watched, and walked over, taking a seat next to her. She copied Gail's stance, legs crossed indian style, and waited patiently for the blonde to start talking. Gail chewed for a moment and then swallowed, and reached for her water. Holly felt like the moment had dragged on forever when the blonde finally took a mouthful and was ready to speak.

"Okay," she paused, "Shit. I am really, really crap at the whole, talking, thing," she sighed angrily at herself, and Holly tried to offer her a reassuring smile, "Okay, I'm just going to… I don't know if you, like, realise, but you're pretty much my best friend. That sounds so fucking middle school, but it's true." Holly wasn't sure if she should feel cut that Gail just completely friend-zoned her, or touched that the blonde actually considered her such a good friend, and wound up feeling a weird mixture of the two that made no sense at all to her brain. So she mostly just felt mildly nauseas.

"It's just that you kind of, get me. Like Tracy and Andy and Dov, they didn't like me in the beginning, and they do now, but it took them a while. I know I've never talked about it too much before, but I didn't really have any friends in the academy. I didn't have any at 15th either, for a while. But you, just… you got me, straight away. And I tend to fuck up everything that I touch. And it seemed like maybe tonight I finally did that, to, this." She finished awkwardly, frowning into her lap. Holly wasn't sure what to say. She wanted to reassure Gail that she hadn't done that at all, but at the same time, she knew she needed to say something, and this, if ever, was the time to do so.  _Just spit it out._

"Before, in the elevator…. Gail, when you said that I was never going to meet a cute girl," she took a deep breath and took the plunge, "what if I already  _did_?" she gave Gail a pointed look, and the blonde stared back, the realisation of exactly what Holly was saying taking a moment to settle in. Her big blue eyes were wide, and unguarded, and scared, and Holly bit her lip nervously, waiting for some kind of reply.

"Oh."  _Not quite the response I was looking for_. Holly groaned, pushing her glasses back up her nose out of habit, even though they hadn't slipped much at all. She could feel the air slipping out of her lungs, like there was a small hole somewhere and every time she took a breath she could never fill them because the air was just continually escaping.

"No, I just. Do you have alcohol? I think for this conversation, I need alcohol," Gail looked round the room, as though a bottle of vodka might appear out of thin air.

"Kitchen, top right hand cupboard," Holly told her, voice quiet. She watched as the blonde got up off of the couch and walked around towards the kitchen. She turned around in her seat, placing her arms on the back of the couch and resting her chin on her hands as she watched Gail turn the corner and almost disappear from sight. The cupboard door creaked as the blonde opened it, and then Holly could hear the clinking of glass bottles, the sound of a metal lid twisting open, liquid falling into a glass. Gail made a kind of high, squeaking sound as the liquor burned down her throat.

"Trust you to have really nice, expensive vodka," the voice echoed from around the corner, and Holly couldn't help but smile at the dig. She heard Gail take a deep breath before she walked out again, and when her face remerged there was a casual smile plastered over her features, attempting to hide her obvious nerves. She walked around and sat back down opposite Holly.

"Holly, I-" Gail stuttered, "like you. In a way that, I never imagined that I would when we first met. But I'm not good at relationships. And I can't-" she stopped and picked at loose thread on Holly's sofa for a moment and then sighed, apparently unable to continue, "Say something." Holly frowned, that was not what she expected.

"Wait, you like me? Like, like like me?" she replied. Gail looked back up at her, brow furrowed adorably.

"That's what you get out of that?" she shook her head, exasperated, "Nerd-" she began, but was cut off when Holly leant forward and crawled across the couch. The brunette watched as Gail froze mid sentence, her blue eyes flecked with fear, but filled with something else far stronger, as Holly leant in and kissed her. One of her hands gently cupped Gail's cheek, as the other gripped the couch. She kissed her so slowly that for a moment the kiss felt infinite, and all she could think about was Gail's lips, the small dimple in the bottom one that she always found herself staring at and could now feel pressed against her own. She felt the blonde's hand against her hip, pulling her closer, and goosebumps spread from the contact point, crawling all across her back, making her shiver. Finally she pulled away, her face still close to Gail's.

"I don't know if I can just be friends with you," she whispered. Gail frowned, and then leant forward and kissed her back, taking hold of both of Holly's hips and pulling the brunette onto her lap. Holly couldn't help the small gasp that escaped her mouth mid-kiss as Gail's hands slipped under her shirt, gripping her so tightly that the blonde's nails were digging into her skin. She moved one of her hands from Gail's cheek, around the back of her neck, and tangled her fingers in soft, blonde hair. This time when she withdrew her breath was laboured, adrenaline coursing through her blood stream and causing her legs to shake. She swallowed, and reached up to gently trace Gail's facial features, running her finger over her arched brow, down the dip of her nose, over the dimple above her mouth, along the curve of her lips. The blonde stared up at her silently.

"What does this mean?" Holly finally asked. Gail bit her lip, those eyes which had been like open books moments before, suddenly guarded.

"I don't know."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the incredibly slow update, I have been having atrocious writers block :P
> 
> Thank you so much to all the incredibly sweet people who bother to review/comment, it means a lot to me, and is probably the only reason I managed to finish this chapter haha
> 
> For personal reasons the next chapter out may be a little slow as well, so do forgive me, but I will update as soon as I can.

Holly woke up lying half off of the lounge, a knee digging into her back, and a hand interlinked with her own tightly. The muscles in her back ached, and as she shifted to try and find a more comfortable position the hand gripping hers squeezed even harder. Holly turned her head to see the sleeping blonde beside her. Gail was drooling slightly onto one of the nautical themed cushions, forming what looked like a dark storm cloud above an old fashioned ship. She was fast asleep, her eyes fluttering slightly behind their lids.

"What is going on in that head of yours?" Holly whispered, leaning over and gently pressing a kiss against the blonde's forehead. She sat up slightly and reached for her phone on the coffee table, the screen lit up and the numbers '4:50' glared at her blurrily. This was usually about the time she would get up and go for a run, but she didn't want to leave the sleeping blonde next to her. She groaned, letting the phone fall back onto the wooden table top with a loud  _thunk_ , and wiggling back on the lounge until she could feel Gail's body pressed up against her back. Heat radiated from the other woman's skin.

"Why do you get to be the little spoon?" Gail mumbled sleepily, pulling the brunette further into her arms. Holly smiled, her limbs already feeling warm and heavy again, and let herself fall back to sleep.

When she woke for the second time, everything felt considerably different from the moment that her mind began to regain consciousness. The first thing she noticed was the cold air around her body, her hands curled around a cushion as she lay spread out over the lounge. As soon as it clicked in her head that these things were a result of Gail no longer lying next to her, the sleepy haze she had been slowly waking from vanished in a snap. She fumbled to find her glasses, sliding them up her nose and putting the room back into focus. She looked around, but her apartment was empty, filled only with warm orange mid-morning light. She spotted a hand scrawled note sitting on the coffee table next to her phone, and picked it up.

' _Had to go to work, you were too peaceful to wake up. Talk later. G._ ' Holly sighed heavily as she checked the time. It was nine thirty, and she was already late for work herself. She quickly called to tell them she'd be there soon and dragged herself into the shower. As she let the scolding water pour over her, she couldn't help but think about last night. About kissing Gail, repeatedly. My god that cop knew how to kiss. And when the blonde had tried to insist that it wasn't a good idea, that  _she_  wasn't a good idea, Holly had taken her hand and said "We're not discussing this tonight. You're obviously too tired, because you're not making  _any_  sense." When it had reached one am, the two had somehow ended up falling asleep. One minute Holly had been talking, more like mumbling, about an article she had been asked to write, and the next she had been waking up at fourty thirty.

She turned the taps off, and water dripped down her body onto the tiles as she stepped out and reached for her towel. She had the nauseating feeling that Gail was going to do what Gail did best - create an emergency situation to get out of the tree. But the other woman did have a perfectly good excuse to leave, and had left a reasonably sane sounding note. She took a deep breath and shook her head. She couldn't be dwelling over this now. She got dressed faster than she probably had since medical school, when she would sleep in late after studying till four or five in the morning and have fifteen minutes to shower, dress, eat and be at the bus stop. As she parked her car outside the morgue she stopped and reached for her phone, sending a rushed text to Gail.

' _Thanks for making me late for work, that's the last time I let_ you _sleep over_.' She was aiming for cool and casual, and hoped it hadn't come off too biting. It was Gail though, what was she worrying about? If there was anyone who would take a text like that exactly as it was intended, it would be the blonde she couldn't get out of her head.

From the moment she stepped into the lab, she knew she had to dispel all thoughts of Gail if she was going to get anything done, which was imperative considering that she had done none of the work she had taken home with her last night. However thinking it was easier than doing it. All day she found herself making small mistakes that she wouldn't usually have made. Spelling errors on simple words and skipping over steps. She was usually the most thorough person, disciplined and methodical, but today she was considerably off. By the time she finished work at nine thirty, she was exhausted. She packed her things back up, put two files and a large series of articles into her suitcase to work on that night, and reached for her phone in the top draw of her desk. After checking it eighteen times in the first half an hour of work she'd realised it was too much of a distraction, and had turned the phone on silent, and locked it away. She turned the screen on, and found she had five new messages, all from Gail.

' _I'm pretty sure you_ wanted _me to keep you up all night, you're just lucky I let you sleep._ '

' _I'm stuck on desk duty today, come save me_.'

' _Nerd, since when do you not answer your texts?_ '

' _I think you're neurotic-ness has worn off on me, because I'm like, worried._ '

' _Answer this soon or I am coming down there_.'

Holly felt herself grinning as she re-read them, before she realised that it had been twenty five minutes since the last message, and she hadn't replied. She typed back as fast as she could manage, ' _I'm fine. Had phone off all day. But it's nice to know you worry about me_.' She sent it and grabbed her coat, heading for the door, when the blonde in question came around the corner, glaring at her.

"Thank you for the message,  _finally_ , but I'm already here," she was out of uniform, wearing jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt, and she had her arms crossed over her chest huffily, "Holly, I don't know your middle name yet, Stewart. Learn to answer your damn phone." Gail was frowning, but Holly could see in her eyes that it was 90% for show, and she was only a little mad at her. She walked over and placed her hand gently on the blonde's arm, biting her lip nervously out of habit.

"I'm sorry, honestly. But since you're here, how do you feel about dinner? Because I am starving!" She smiled sheepishly at Gail, and the other woman caved, rolling her eyes but nodding and letting Holly lead her down the hall back towards the car.

"One condition though, I get to choose where we eat this time," she replied, expression serious for a moment, before it soften and she smiled back at the brunette, "doofus." Holly laughed, letting go of Gail's arm as they exited out of the main door.

"Deal," she conceded, "It's May, by the way. My middle name. But I'm not giving you permission to ever use it.  _Ever_ , Gail."

...

Holly peeked nervously at Gail over the top of her menu. The blonde hadn't even bothered to look at her own, having informed Holly that she knew exactly what she wanted as they had taken a seat in the booth. How ironic the brunette had thought, smirking to herself. Neither of them had brought up the previous night yet, it seemed they were both skirting cautiously around the topic. Every time the words were on the tip of Holly's tongue she would catch Gail's cocky smile and swallow them back down again, convinced that she would scare the blonde off. Instead, for now, she enjoyed the other woman's company.

"What are you getting?" she asked, averting her eyes back down to the dinner section before the blonde caught her staring.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Gail replied chipper-ly. Holly could hear the smirk in her voice. She shook her head and continued perusing the burgers. She was hungry enough that everything looked good but she couldn't decide what she actually wanted. She sighed heavily and let the menu flop back onto the table, and pouted at the other woman like a small child not getting her way.

"Pick for me. I can't decide," Holly insisted. She could hear the slight whine in her voice as she said it, and cringed, but the blonde laughed at her and agreed.

"Yikes, you don't deal well when you're hungry," Gail teased, picking the menu up, "Hmmm what to order for a starving lab nerd. Do you have any particular dislikes that I don't know about?" she asked, looking back up and catching Holly's eyes staring at her. The brunette smiled.

"Well, I don't like pickles. In case you're getting me a burger. And I don't like barbecue sauce, only tomato, or mustard. Umm... oh, and for future reference, though probably not an issue here, I dislike olives, and pumpkin, unless the flavour is masked by cinnamon and sugar. And I don't like coconut, unless it's on top of a coconut and jam slice. Not a beetroot fan. I don't mind mushrooms, it depends what mood I'm in." She felt herself rambling and quickly stopped. Gail looked at her quietly for a moment, and Holly suddenly began to feel embarrassed at her admission. Maybe that was an information overload. Then the blonde gave her a small, soft smile, one corner of her mouth curling slightly more than the other.

"You're weird," she stated, before dropping her gaze and adding, "I like it." It was one of those incredibly rare moments when Gail was shy and soft and more than anything, vulnerable. Then it was gone again, and the other woman was looking out at the diner with a mildly irritated expression.

"God, is our waiter like, a snail?" she complained, rolling her eyes and making Holly giggle.

"Well look who's impatient now," she quipped, nudging Gail's knee beneath the table with her own. The blonde nudged her back playfully.

"Holly, are you trying to play footsies with me?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. The brunette glared back at her.

"In your dreams Peck."

...

Holly was only halfway through her burger when Gail swallowed her last bite, and grinned across at her. There was a small smudge of ketchup on the corner of her mouth, and the brunette had to fight the urge to lean over and wipe it off. Maybe that was a bit  _too_  girlfriend-y.

"So how are you liking your Gail special, minus the pickles?" the blonde asked, beaming and taking a large mouthful of cola. Holly tried to fight back a giggle, but couldn't stop it from bubbling up. The other woman gave her a strange look as she leant back in her seat and waited for the brunette to finish chewing. Holly dropped the last piece of burger back onto her plate, rubbing her stomach.

"I can't eat another bite, because that is the biggest burger I have ever seen, but it was pretty good," she replied, pushing the plate away and dabbing her mouth with a napkin to try and hint to the other woman that maybe she should do the same, "How on earth did you finish it?" Gail just grinned at her, completely oblivious.

"Easy, my stomach is an endless pit. If you put a cookie in front of me right now, I would devour that too," she replied. Holly shook her head in disbelief. How such a tiny person could contain so much food was beyond her. Even though scientifically speaking of course she knew it was plausible, looking at the blonde's small physique that didn't seem the case. She pulled her purse out of her handbag and quickly slid out of the booth, making a beeline towards the front counter. Behind her she heard Gail question where she was going, and then seeming to realise, sounds of protest, but there wasn't anything that the blonde could do, because Holly was already pulling out her card and paying. When she returned to her seat Gail was glaring at her.

"The person who asks the other person out is supposed to pay, nerd." She grabbed her coat and slid out of the booth.

"Technically, I am the one who asked you to dinner. You only chose were," Holly replied, holding the door open for the blonde as they exited back out onto the street. It was dark, and the street was quiet. She took a deep breath and reached over, taking the other woman's hand in her own, and hoping desperately that she wouldn't freak Gail out. Gail looked across at her as they walked, and adjusted her hand to interlink their fingers. The brunette could feel that energy again, that kind of static electricity from the other woman's touch. When they reached her car, just a few shops further down the street, she stopped, stilling holding onto Gail's hand. The blonde leant back against the car quietly, as if she knew Holly wanted, or needed, to say something. The brunette stood in front of her, chewing her bottom lip. When she looked up at the other woman, steeling herself to say the speech she had been writing and re-writing in her head all day, instead she potted the little red ketchup smear on the corner of Gail's mouth. She giggled, causing the blonde to raise her eyebrows in a manner indicating she was questioning Holly's sanity.

"No, it's just," the brunette began to reply, but stopped and leant forward instead, holding Gail's chin gently in one hand, and using one finger to wipe away the sauce, "you had ketchup on your face." She held the finger up to show Gail, and then without thinking put it into her mouth and sucked off the sauce. The sweet flavour washed over her tongue. If the blonde hadn't been blushing before, she certainly was then, the light cast from a street lamp nearby clearly showing the crimson flushed along her cheek bones. Before Gail had enough time to formulate a collected, witty and cutting come back, Holly moved forward, pressing the blonde back against the car door, and kissed her. She felt Gail's hips press up into her own, the contact making her stomach twist. Holly pulled away slowly, but kept her body leaning against the blonde's.

"I don't need you to put a label on this or define it yet, but, I really,  _really_  like you. All I need to know is that you like me too. That's enough for now." She breathed out for what felt like the first time since they'd kissed the night before. Gail stared back at her, blue eyes dark and wide.

"I like you too. A  _lot_ , in case you hadn't noticed. Now stop being a neurotic, overly emotional lesbian and  _take me home_ ," she replied smirking, voice low and soft in a way that sent shivers up and down Holly's spine. The brunette nodded mutely, unable to stop herself from grinning as she walked Gail around to the passenger side and opened the door for her. Two weeks ago she never could have imagined that this stunning blonde cop with electric blue eyes would ever have returned her feelings.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long break between chapters, I've had some stuff going on at the moment which means I don't really have much time to write. Just a warning, the next couple of chapters will be slow out as well.
> 
> Thank you so much for all the sweet comments and reviews :) I always appreciate them.
> 
> Hope you guys like this chapter ;)

Holly stood over her kitchen sink and took a deep breath in, hands clutching the cold metal taps. She could feel the blood pulsing through her veins, the sensation so strong she could focus on it entirely and the rest of the world faded away. She turned one of the taps until water came gushing out, fresh and cold, and she cupped it in her palms, splashing it onto her flushed face. How the blonde sitting in her living room could be  _so_  oblivious to what a tease she was being was beyond her. Gail had opened the car door for her when they arrived back at her apartment and leant right in, tshirt hanging so that the brunette could see directly down to her more than ample cleavage, comfortably held by a lacy light blue bra. It's not like Holly had looked on purpose, they were directly at eye level, what was she supposed to do? She was only human after all. The blonde had had no idea, smiling and offering Holly her hand, pulling her out of the car. She had been too busy teasing her about something which Holly now for the life of her could not recall. Then sitting on Holly's lounge the blonde had kept touching her, so softly like a feather brushing against her skin; on the back of her hand, on her knee. Gail had told her when they first started talking that she wasn't a very touchy person, had told some story about an ex-boyfriend, the moral of which was that she not only hated PDA but wasn't fond of close intimate contact in private either. So the first time she'd held Holly's hand it had taken the brunette completely off guard, and every time since, when without any reason the blonde would touch her, she would wonder, was it because maybe she was different somehow? And then she'd think,  _how up myself can I be_ , and shake her head discarding the thought. Now she was wondering how someone who apparently used to dislike romantic contact was now unknowingly making Holly's heart race and her skin tingle just by touching her.

Drips of water rolled down the brunette's face, collecting and falling from the tip of her nose and the bottom of her chin into the metal sink. From the other room she heard Gail shuffling around, and then the sound of someone running their hand over piano keys. She bit her lip and picked her glasses back up from the kitchen counter, slipping them on over her damp face and walking around the corner. She found the blonde kneeling on the stool at the small piano around the corner, fingers resting on the keys.

"Do you play?" she asked as she approached, smiling as she caught Gail off guard and the other woman looked back at her, cheeks pink.

"The piano? God no, it was bad enough learning the tuba. I am  _not_  musically inclined," Gail scoffed, shifting across and patting the spot next to her on the stool, "Come here band nerd, show me your stuff." The brunette laughed, and took a seat against her better judgement. It had been a while since she'd played, and there was a light layer of dust visible on the black keys. The blonde beside her flicked through old sheet music left sitting on top of the piano, some of them the same sheets Holly had first learnt to play on when she was eight years old. Gail paused as she came across a set of blank sheets that had been written on in pencil, and she looked across at the brunette with a triumphant smile plastered across her face.

"Well, what do we have here then?" she sung smugly, placing them on the music stand, "Did you write this yourself?" Holly couldn't help but laugh at this, creating a look of confusion on the blonde's face.

" _God no_ ," she mimicked Gail's earlier response teasingly, "I didn't have the sheet music for a song I liked, so I wrote it out by ear." She explained, which to her surprise seemed to impress the blonde just as much. Gail peered at the title scribbled messily at the top of the first page,  _What If The Storm Ends_.

"I was gunna say, a little emo there Holls," she teased, and Holly felt a pleasant kind of jolt in her stomach at the new nickname she'd received. It was usually either Holly, or nerd where appropriate. She smiled to herself.

"So, are you going to play it for me then?" The brunette blinked, taken by surprise. She felt her mouth go dry.

"Oh, well. I mean, I'm pretty rusty. I haven't played in quite some time," she mumbled, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Gail gave her a soft smile, and leant in closer, reaching up to adjust Holly's glasses, and brushing the brunette's cheek as she did so, leaving a hot sensation on her skin.

"Is that a nervous habit of yours, nerd?" she asked, though she obviously already new the answer, and the brunette nodded, "You tend to do it a lot. Do I make you nervous Holly?" Holly swallowed,  _okay, she is definitely no longer oblivious_. Instead of answering she cleared her throat and placed her hands on the keys and started playing, stopping Gail from forming another witty line that would no doubt cause her to blush. The blonde just listened quietly, watching Holly's fingers run over the keys. The brunette didn't need the sheet music anymore, she had long since learnt the repetitive tune by heart, so it was only as she came to the last part of the song that Gail suddenly thought to change the page, flicking to the last one. It was the only one with lyrics written beneath the music.

_What if the storm ends, and I don't see you_

_As you are now ever again_

_A perfect halo of gold hair and lightening_

_Set you up against the planets last dance_

_Just for a minute the silver forked sky_

_Lit you up like a star that I would follow_

_And now its found us, like i have found you_

_I don't wanna run, just overwhelm me_

As she played Holly felt herself humming the words softly beneath her breath out of habit, a low vibration inside her mouth as the muted tune echoed against her tongue. As her finger pressed down on the last note she looked up for the first time and found Gail watching her, eyes dark and unguarded.

"Wow," the blonde breathed out, "You're really good." Holly shook her head, smiling rye-ly. Her timing had been that little bit off in the beginning section, which drove her crazy and stopped her from being able to accept any praise on the performance, but she knew that was the perfectionist in her.

"When I was in grade nine we had to write an original composition for music, and my teacher said to me, Holly you are one of the most technically advanced students I have had, you technique is perfect, but you have the musical creativity of a goat," she confessed suddenly. She had no idea why she was telling Gail this. She had never told anyone about that before, not even her father at the time, who was always calling her his little prodigy. The blonde was quiet, her expression altering slightly from an impressed smile to a small frown.

"I think it was both one of the nicest and at the same time, the meanest thing that anyone has ever said to me," she concluded, cheeks pink. It was silent for a moment, and then Gail placed her hand over Holly's where it still rested on the piano keys, squeezing it gently. Two of the keys pressed down under the weight of their hands, and a mellow note resounded, before slowly fading out.

"I think you are completely amazing. In every single way," the blonde told her firmly. Holly bit her lip to try and stop herself from grinning, but couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from turning up.

"Was that a compliment, Gail?" She asked, smirking. Gail scowled, rolling her eyes and withdrawing her hand.

"The last one you'll be getting for a while  _now_ , nerd," the blonde retorted, rising to her feet. Holly laughed and grabbed the other woman's hand to stop her from walking away, an electric jolt surging across her skin from the contact. When Gail looked back at her, soft blonde hair falling gently around her shoulders and face, she felt her heart thump. Standing up, she moved forward and at the same time pulled the other woman towards her, tightening her grip on the blonde's hand as she dipped her head and captured Gail's lips with her own. The blonde's mouth tasted sweet, the faint taste of cola on her tongue as she kissed back. Holly only meant it to be that, one deep kiss, but then she felt Gail's hands gripping her belt loops, and before she could think about it she was kissing the blonde again and again, slipping a hand up the back of the other woman's neck and tangling her fingers in her hair. She was pushing the blonde back, and they were moving down the hall, kissing, breathing heavily into each other's mouths. Suddenly they were at Holly's bedroom door, and Gail was reaching for the handle behind her back, pushing it open, and stumbling backwards into the dark room. The back of the blonde's knees hit Holly's mattress, and the kiss was finally broken as Gail's legs bent and she fell back to sit on the bed. The brunette could feel her breath heavy and fast, chest rising and falling quickly as she stood over Gail, looking down at the blonde's face in the dim lighting. Their hands were still interlinked, and she could feel both of their pulses against her palm, each as fast as the other's. Gail slowly pulled her hand free, wide blue eyes staring right back into Holly's, and took the hem of her t-shirt, slowly pulling it up, over her stomach, revealing fully that lacy blue bra, over her head, to let it fall onto the doona beside her. The blonde was biting her bottom lip, the first time Holly had ever seen her do so.

"Gail," the brunette breathed, brushing blonde hair out of the other woman's eyes, "Are you- I mean, this is, fast... even for  _me_. So, for  _you_. I would understand, if this was moving too quickly, and you weren't ready... Not, I mean, that I'm assuming that we were, going to, um- Because I wasn't. Assuming, that is." She could feel herself blushing profusely as she stammered her way through what was supposed to be a question, but came out an awkward statement. She had Gail shirtless on her bed, why was she trying to talk again?

"Nerd, take your shirt off," Gail replied, voice breathy and soft, placing her palms down on the bed and leaning back on her arms, accentuating her chest. Holly could feel her skin burning hot, running her tongue over her lips nervously. She suddenly felt slightly self conscious, standing in front of the blonde, with those eyes watching her carefully, waiting. She must have paused too long, because Gail sat back up, reaching forward, taking the bottom of Holly's shirt and pulling it up. The brunette felt cold air rush against her hot skin as her stomach was exposed, and then the t-shirt was being yanked over her head, almost catching on her glasses, which she had forgotten she was wearing. As it fell onto the floor beside her she leant down and kissed Gail softly, slowly pushing her back to lie down on the bed, their hips meeting, one of her legs sliding between the other woman's. The brunette could feel Gail nervously running her hands up and down her back, hovering over the clasp of her bra as though unsure, and then sliding back down to grip the curve of her hips instead as they kissed, long and deep, coming up for air and panting heavily. Holly pulled back and looked down into the blonde's eyes, smiling shyly.

"You can-" she swallowed, and then noticed that Gail was smirking slightly, as though she were mildly amused by Holly's nervousness, and she found herself smiling back, "take it off." She finished, a little more confidently. She watched the blonde blush, but then she reached up and undid the clasp so that the brunette's bra came loose, and she was able to slip the straps off and discard it to the side. As Holly leant in again to kiss the blonde, the other woman smiled up at her.

"You're gorgeous," Gail whispered, before kissing the brunette again.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I did warn you guys there might be a wait on this chapter, but it was longer than I realised. Sorry 0:)
> 
> Thank you guys for all the comments/reviews/follows...etc I really appreciate them all!
> 
> I have been struggling a bit writing again, so I will be honest, I spat this out in all up a couple of hours, including some parts written on my mobile, so I may have left in a few spelling mistakes, but I really wanted to post something as soon as possible.
> 
> To the few of you who bothered to come back again after the hiatus - thank you, and I really hope you enjoy this next chapter!

...

Holly leaned against the counter of the small office kitchen that was shared by the morgue and labs, holding a coffee mug in her hands, and grinning from ear to ear. She was completely off in her head, and oblivious to the heat radiating from the ceramic sides of the cup and slightly burning her hands until it got to the stage of actual pain, and then she winced and pulled her palms away, almost spilling the fresh, fragrant liquid over the side with her sharp movement. A loud laugh from the other side of the small room caught her attention and she looked up to find one of her only two friends, other than Gail - what ever you called that - standing in the door way. Felicity was one of the lab girls, a pretty dedicated scientist, but she had what Holly sorely lacked, that innate social ability that let her make friends with everyone and anyone. It was this ability that was the only reason they in fact were friends at all. With normal people of average and polite social skills Holly made an awkward mess of herself and a friendship never managed to evolve from the halting small talk or more often strained silences of the initial conversation. The red head was grinning at her from the entry way, hands on her hips.

"Holly Stewart,  _you_  got laid last night," she announced, much too loudly for the brunette's liking, and strode straight towards the fridge, opening the door and searching around for someone else's lunch to steal. Holly felt her cheeks burn bright red and the grin dropped away from her mouth.

"N- no I didn't," she stuttered out in reply. The red head's face reappeared momentarily from behind the refrigerator door, only to give her an incredulous look, scoff, and then return to rooting around through their coworkers food.

"You did so. It is written all over your face. And plus, since when do you  _ever_  zone out in the break room? You're usually in and out in five minutes flat, and then drinking your coffee while working again. You never mull around for no apparent reason, this is completely unprecedented, and the only reason I can think to explain this, is that you finally got laid." Felicity's voice is echoing out of the cavern of the fridge, and Holly is just glad that the other woman cannot see her cheeks flaring scarlet again just as they had began to settle down. The worst part is that every time Felicity mentions 'get laid', she gets flashes of last night in her head, and her stomach twists, and she gets a warm sensation in her very low abdomen. She takes a deep breath and then a long sip of hot, strong coffee, and hopes that maybe Felicity will just let this lie, but she should know better.

"So, who is she?" the red head asks as she remerges with a sandwich in hand. But not just any sandwich, Holly's sandwich, which usually wouldn't bug her, except that a very cute officer left it sitting on the bench for her this morning when she had to run off to work early. No-one but her is eating her Gail Special sandwich. She snatches it back, again completely uncharacteristic of her usual nature, and Felicity just looks amused.

"That is  _my_  sandwich, and, I'm not telling," she blurts out, holding the sandwich awkwardly in one hand and her coffee in the other. The red head laughs again, and reaches back in to the fridge, this time producing a yogurt with someone's name written along the top in marker, and 'DO NOT EAT THIS FELICITY' written on the side.

"Suit yourself," she shrugs, still smiling, as she rips off the lid and digs a spoon out of the cutlery draw, "But from the looks of your grin, it was pretty good. Nice work Hols." She winks and then turns on her heels and leaves just as quickly as she had entered. The brunette is left with another flash of the previous evening dancing through her brain.

_The blonde had been trying to act so confident, but as soon as her clothes were off, and she was lying beneath Holly, the brunette could feel how truly nervous the other woman was. Gail's hands were just slightly shaking as they trailed up Holly's ribcage and then paused. The brunette had to bite her lip to stop herself from encouraging them to continue. The feel of the blonde's finger tips hovering so delicately against her skin, lightly tracing the slight indent the underwire of her bra had left from the clasp done up too tight, was driving her crazy. She felt like she was on fire, heat spreading across her skin from every contact point._

_The blonde's breathing was shallow against Holly's mouth as she pulled away just slightly and spoke against her lips._

_"What if I don't know what to do?" The question was a muted whisper half buried in their kiss. Holly captured the words in her own mouth along with Gail's bottom lip, which she grazed with her teeth. She had always assumed that come the time when she actually met a nice woman and had sex again, she would be awkward and shy, fumbling and halting, not knowing what she was doing. With Gail though, it felt more natural than it ever had before. She felt herself flush with embarrassment at her sudden bold move, maybe that was too forward? Her own awkwardness seemed to make the blonde beneath her giggle and relax slightly._

_"When we first met, and you were wearing those daggy gumboots and that ridiculously sensible and unflattering jacket and snapping back at me sarcastically, I never would have guessed you were so incredibly sexy. I should have though." The blonde let the statement hang in the air, blue eyes staring up into Holly's. Holly smiled warmly and dropped her head to place a tentative voice on the other woman's collar bone._

_She knew what she wanted to say - but she just could say it. The words were stuck in the back of her throat. She wanted to be sexy and whisper it in Gail's ear in that kind of husky, sultry tone that the gorgeous blonde used effortlessly, but she knew it wouldn't come out that way. She felt Gail's hand slide down her arm, fingers tracing around the delicate bones of her wrist and interlinking their fingers softly._

_"When I first met you, and you were rocking that Police Uniform, with your blonde hair pulled back, and you were throwing snide remarks and witty comebacks at me, I thought you were smoking hot, and would probably be amazing in bed," she whispered, grinning, and felt Gail reach up and hit her lightly on the arm, "Okay maybe not the last part. I did think you were gorgeous though, in a kind of unattainable, straight girl, out of my league way." The last statement was a truth that had been plaguing her mind since that first kiss, because in her head it didn't make sense. Now here she was with Gail lying underneath her, semi naked, touching her and kissing her, and in the back of her mind she was still thinking that any moment the blonde would realise it was all a mistake. She was straight, and in any case, if she were ever going to be seduced by a woman, it would at least be a confident, sexy lesbian, not a dorky nerd with awkward social skills who spoke too much and hadn't had sex for... The insecurities churning through her nerdy, over-thinking brain were interrupted by Gail's delicate hands sliding up over her breasts and cupping them gently. Heat rushed downwards, the fever sensation across the back of her neck and the skin of her chest suddenly moved further south, and her stomach swirled, and dropped, as though she were on a swing coming back down. The blonde kissed her slowly, a deliberate and soft movement that lingered on Holly's now dry lips._

_"Oh," she breathed out without thinking, blood rushing to her head, and causing it to spin, "Gail, I think you're going to make a better lesbian than I am," she quipped, and leaned in to kiss the other woman again._

Holly's head was spinning now too, but in a different kind of way. In a giddy way, her body feeling light as she placed her sandwich back in the bridge and sipped her coffee before slowly making her way back to her desk. Felicity was right - getting... laid wasn't the right word. No, sleeping with someone. No, sleeping with  _Gail_ , because the who was important, had altered her, in a good way. She would by no usually be heavily back into work. Instead she was leisurely logging back on and taking another drag of caffeine - much needed caffeine after the small amount of sleep she had ended up getting. She checked her phone and found a new message from Gail.

_Today just get's better and better - Me and Olly just busted a grow op. We should celebrate later ;)_

Holly found herself giggling, shaking her head at the blonde. One reply, and then she would get back to work.

_Did you have anything particular in mind?_

She noticed the flirty tone in her words as she typed, smiled at this new found flirty side she had discovered, and hit send before she could stop herself. Then she placed the phone in her desk draw and quickly turned herself back to work. At this rate she would be working all weekend to make up for the all the lost time she had wasted.

Several hours later the brunette had finally begun to make headway on several important things she was working on. She took a breath and allowed herself to pull out her mobile phone from the desk draw, as she got up to make herself another coffee. There were multiple new texts from Gail, and she grinned as she opened them.

_10:59am: Chuck E. Cheese?_

_11:15am: You know I was only kidding, right?_

_12:02pm: I cannot believe that I, Gail Peck, lead officer in the discovery of this grow-op, am now stuck moving plants. Unimpressed nerd. Cancel Chuck E. Cheese - this does not deserve a celebratory pizza._

_4:15pm: Do you know where Toronto East General Hospital is?_

Holly blinked as she read the last one, her brow furrowing as she read it over again, twice. She glanced at the time, it was currently 4:23, she hurriedly typed back, confirming that she did, and asking for an explanation.  _You're freaking me out Peck._ She hit send and chewed on her nails absentmindedly - a habit she hadn't fallen back on since finals- waiting for a reply. The text came back in a matter of minutes.

_Mind picking me up? I'm hopped up on drugs - the good stuff - and I don't think they'll let me operate heavy machinery._


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay so I finally spat something out, and I'm just going to post it before I regret it.
> 
> I hate most of this chapter with a passion - so no hard feelings if any of you feel the same.
> 
> Thank you for all the insanely kind comments, all the follows and kudos, and the super nice people who have sent tumblr messages.
> 
> Hopefully this doesn't turn any of you of the story.

Ignoring her better instincts Holly grabbed her phone again as she stopped at the lights on the way to the hospital, checking for a reply from Gail. Her heart was racing, but not in a sexy way, not like last night - in an unpleasant, uneasy, semi-nauseas way. She found a new text and quickly opened it, glancing back and forth between her mobile and the lights to make sure they didn't turn green again without her noticing. The last thing Gail needed right now was for her to end up in the hospital as well.

_Calm down CNN - just a burn. I'm on level three, going thru the painful process of discharge. Too many forms._

Holly's brow crinkled as she read the text - a thousand thoughts rushing through her head at once - and she wrote back a typo littered reply and hit send before dropping the mobile back into the console. Trust Gail to be so flippant, but at least it wasn't something drastic like a bullet wound - her worst fear when it came to the cop.

_I'l b tehre as soon as posible - CNN?_

When she pulled up outside of the hospital, leaving the car in what was not technically a parking spot but was close to the exit, she grabbed her phone and her keys and hurried out of the car. Her palms were sweaty, and the mobile slipped in her grip, fumbling it, before shoving it into her coat pocket. She pulled it out once she'd reached the elevator and leaned back against the wall. When she took the phone back out she saw Gail's reply, and found herself smiling stupidly at the blonde's answer.

_Cute Neurotic Nerd. ie you._

She was still smiling when she walked through the doors into the wing, her shoes echoing with each step on the clean linoleum floor, and she caught sight of the other woman, still dressed in her police uniform, stray strands of hair sticking out from her usually neat, pulled back work do. She felt her heart race at the sight, and then calm again, upon seeing her, seeing that she was safe. Gail was speaking to another officer, so Holly held back, leaning against the reception counter, watching, trying not to beam at finally getting to lay eyes on the blonde again, the first time since that morning, when she had opened her eyes and watched Gail's naked form retreating into the bathroom, dim light from the hall falling across her skin, a small shadow cast by the gentle curve of her spine, the dip at the base where her ass began. She bit her lip and let the mental image fade, concentrating on her lungs filling with air and slowly exhaling again, the breath pushing past her lips as Gail caught sight of her and began to make her way over. She smiled as the blonde walked towards her.

"Hey," the word came out softer than she meant it to, barely a whisper. The other woman came closer, and Holly could see stress and tiredness and something else around her eyes.

"Hey," Gail replied, her voice had that same tone it had the day that Chris' son was missing, I kind of heaviness to it, a raw and delicate quality, "let's get out of here." Holly felt herself biting down on her bottom lip and nodding quickly. She resisted the urge to take the other woman's hand, vaguely aware that the other officer was standing just metres away still. Instead she walked closely beside her, so that her elbow could just gentle graze Gail's uniform sleeve as they moved towards the exit.

"I was so worried about you," she found herself admitting as they waited for the elevator, and the blonde looked across at her, blue eyes so wide and vulnerable that a protective instinct inside her chest began to burst forth, and she wanted to pull the other woman into her arms, but new it wasn't the place. A small smile tugged around the corners of Gail's mouth.

"I kind of like that," she replied, voice still that same consistency, almost worrying but for the fact that Holly new the burn and the whole experience must have taken their toll. She smiled back at the other woman softly, wanting so much to reach up and brush that strand of blonde hair away from Gail's face. Her fingers twitched and she shoved them deep into her coat pockets as the elevator finally opened and they stepped inside. The lift was empty. She pressed the ground button and stood next to the blonde in the centre of the space as the metal doors closed behind them. After a second she felt warm chapped lips press against her cheek, sending scarlet spreading across her face like a wildfire, and when the contact ended she turned across to eye Gail where she stood. The officer grinned at her cheekily.

"You're still on pain meds, huh?" Holly shook her head, but couldn't stop herself from smiling, ear to ear, the kind of smile that makes you cheeks ache, but you don't care at all. Gail laughed, but nodded.

"Just took a new dose before I left," she informed Holly smugly, "you're going to have a  _fun_  night." The brunette raised her eyebrows, seeing the perfect opportunity to make the blonde squirm. She was so cute when she did so.

"Night? I thought I was just giving you a lift home?" she replied, doing her best faux confused face. Although her acting was reasonably mediocre (she had been forced to play Lady Macbeth in high school, probably one of her worst embarrassing moments to date), Gail fell for the act hook line and sinker. It crossed Holly's mind, just for a moment, as the blonde's expression fell, that this was possibly something to do with the adorable blonde's self-esteem levels when it came to relationships, especially considering her last one. She felt horribly guilty.

"Gail, I'm kidding, of course I'm staying with you the night," she quickly backtracked, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose nervously with one finger. Her breath frosted the edge of the glass slightly, alerting her to how heavily she was suddenly breathing. Gail's expression moulded back into one of mild irritation and she rolled her eyes, elbowing the brunette playfully in the side.

"More like I'm letting you stay with me," she replied aloofly as the elevators doors opened again and she stepped out first, leading the way, before she realised she didn't know where she was leading the way too, and had to stop and wait for Holly to catch up.

When they reached the car there was a small red piece of paper tucked under Holly's windshield wipers. Parking ticket. She should have known better, but in all honesty at the time she just hadn't really cared. She glanced across at Gail, hoping the other woman hadn't noticed, as she led her around to the passenger side and opened the door for her, ignoring the blonde's mumbles of ' _capable, can open a door myself, it's not a full body burn, it was only one hand_ ' as she helped her in. As she walked back around she leant over and snatched the piece of paper off of the windscreen, shoving it into her pocket, and then climbed into the driver's seat, putting the keys in the ignition.

"Give it to me, Hols," the blonde told her as the engine started up. Holly batted her lashes, faking naivety, as she began to reverse out into the car park.

"Give you what?" a mildly sly, suggestive tone seeped into her voice as she replied, against her better judgement, but she grinned to herself when she saw Gail's blushing cheeks in the rearview mirror. The blonde's face flushed for a second with embarrassment, and then settled back into a glare directed at the side of the brunette's head as she checked her side mirror.

"The ticket, lunchbox, I'll sort it out for you," she continued to insist, ignoring the pathologist's teasing. Holly just laughed and continued driving, leaving the ticket firmly smushed down into the corner of her coat pocket.

"You're still on drugs, you aren't sorting anything out until at  _least_ tomorrow," she replied in amusement. She turned down a street to the left and the blonde next to her quickly piped up.

"No no, no no no, not my place, can I stay at yours?" Gail asked, biting down on her bottom lip. Holly smiled softly and nodded, making a mental note to take the next right turn. She was kind of glad, in a way, that she got the blonde all to herself.

"Of course," she answered gently, and then couldn't resist adding, "You just don't want your friends around while I'm playing nurse, right?" Gail laughed loudly.

"Do you have an outfit?" this was toeing the line for Gail, who had an endless supply of biting remarks always waiting on the tip of her tongue, but very few flirtatious, sexual remarks ready when it came to Holly. The brunette ran her tongue over her bottom lip before replying.

"Sorry to disappoint, but no." She turned right, back in the direction of her own apartment, and tried to concentrate on getting them home safely in the car, and not getting distracted by thought of Gail, in outfits….

"That's alright, these drugs seem to make me hallucinate, I'll just imagine it." Holly shook her head and took a deep breath.  _That really didn't help Gail_.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So after monthsssss of horrendous writers block, plus one of the suckiest semesters at Uni ever, watching the new episodes of Rookie Blue finally managed to inspire me to continue this story. However because I am a total idiot I lost the half of this chapter I had actually already written. So if this chapter is a bit choppy/weird, then that is due to me writing this for the first time since like Feb and trying to recreate a chapter I had already written from my very bad memory.
> 
> If anybody has bothered to come back to my story then thank you so much for wanting to continue reading after my random hiatus :P I hope you enjoy this, and the storyline that I pursue in the following chapters.

...

Gail sung for approximately ninety percent of the rest of the drive home. Not that Holly minded at all. Not to mention that as promised when they first met, Holly was finally able to witness the blonde's white female rapper skills, which were impressive to say the least.

"We should give you Oxycodone more often," Holly commented in amusement as she helped the blonde out of the car, taking the cop by her good hand. Gail staggered a little as she stepped onto the concrete and let herself lean into the brunette's side for a moment, barely a millisecond, before moving forward out of her touch and leading the way into the lobby. Holly couldn't help the smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth as she thought about the fact that Gail already knew her building so well. The officer's high energy lasted about as far as the elevator, and by the time they reached Holly's apartment door the blonde's arm was slung over her shoulder as they walked in, fingers resting just above the brunette's collar bone. Holly's senses honed on the feeling of the soft finger tips against her skin, grazing the same spot repeatedly, lightly, with every step and movement they made as they walked through her apartment. She led the other woman straight into the bedroom and sat her down gently on the end of the bed.

"Here, I'm just going to put your pain meds in the kitchen, I'll be right back," she told her, going to stand and then pausing a second, leaning in to plant a swift kiss on the blonde's forehead, so fast her lips barely grazed the other woman's skin, and Gail looked up at her with wide blue eyes almost as if trying to decipher whether she had imagined the kiss or not. The late afternoon light seeped under the bedroom curtains and gave the officer a gentle warm glow from behind as Holly smiled down at her before turning on her heels towards to door.

"You know, I don't need to be regulated. I am perfectly capable of knowing when to take my pills," Gail called after her huffily, but Holly ignored her, taking the box of prescription medication back down the hall and placing it in the highest cupboard in the kitchen. When she returned the blonde had managed to get one shoe off and had then apparently given up, and laid back onto the bed. Those blue eyes were boring into the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Watcha thinking about?" Holly asked her gently as she knelt down to remove the second large black boot from the blonde's petite foot. The socks beneath were black with small pink skull and cross bones around the top. She wasn't sure why this amused her quite so much. As she took a seat next to the other woman on the bed, Gail gazed up at her, somewhat forlornly. Or perhaps that expression was tired. Or just high. It was hard to be sure. The blonde reached her hand up towards Holly, the cold fingers on the hand of her non-injured arm gently touching Holly's cheek, and despite the cool touch the brunette felt heat filling her cheeks from the point of contact and spreading back down her throat and into her stomach. It stayed as the officer pulled her hand away with a pensive, guarded look.

"You're veryyyyy pretty," Gail informed her stoically, "but never tell anyone said that." The warmth in Holly's stomach stirred and fluttered at the words, and she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose nervously. It was hard to tell, but something seemed just that bit off with Gail since the hospital. It was just a feeling that Holly had, though she knew that the rationale explanation was that her… not officially girlfriend, cute, straight new best friend who she had slept with the night before… was as high as a kite. She shook the feeling off.

"Sit up, lazy bum, let me get your jacket off," she insisted, tugging gently at the lapels of the bulky uniform jacket that Gail was still wearing.

"I'm not lazy, I'm injured." the blonde retorted, but sat up as she said so, letting Holly tug the heavy appendage off of her, but jerking away when the brunette reached for the top button of her work shirt, "A little forward their lunchbox. I can undress myself. I have an injured hand, I'm not an infant." Holly rolled her eyes and stood up to allow the other woman some room to do so, watched her fumble with the buttons for a minute and then moved back towards the blonde shaking her head.

"Stop being so incredibly stubborn," she told her firmly, softly swatting away her injured hand, and unbuttoning the blonde's shirt. When she finally managed to get Gail undressed and into an old pair of her pyjamas, through much wincing and whining on the blonde's behalf, Holly put the officer straight to bed, despite much protest.

"The last time I went to bed this early I was in middle school," the blonde mumbled, sliding in-between the covers, "this feels weird." Holly sat next to her on the edge of the bed, leaning over her slightly.

"And you're sure that weird feeling isn't just because of, oh I don't know, the strong painkillers coursing through your system?" she asked sarcastically. Gail just stuck her tongue out at her, and then pulled it back in again, her lips pursing a little too seriously as she chewed on a question while finding the courage to push the words out.

"Lunchbox. Last night, was I... um, okay?" she asked, eyes focused on a loose piece of thread in the blanket that she was picking at with her finger nails, a small crease forming between her eyes brows whilst her mouth remained ever stoically straight. Her whole expression was so incredibly endearing that Holly had to fight the urge to lean down and kiss her.

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked, amused at the other woman's inability to outright ask her question, coming from someone who usually had no issues saying it exactly how it was, and never shying away from anything. Those previously nervous blue eyes now glowered up at her intensely, and she caved, lips curving in an apologetic smile.

"Gail, I think that um... based on the animated both physical and verbal reaction which i clearly exhibited last night, you don't really need to ask me that. But if you insist on some kind of response, then yes, you were more than okay," she replied gently, watching as the blonde's gaze softened and her cheeks warmed a light pink, "Although I should probably inform you, while you are in this state in which hopefully your memory will tomorrow be a vague blur, that I hadn't really... had sex, in, a fair while. So it is possible that my perception was a little skewed." She teased lightly, trying to get a smile out of the blonde.

"How is that even possible?" Gail asked back quizzically. Holly laughed.

"Are you trying to say that you think I'm sexy?" she asked, conscious of the fact that she herself was now blushing mildly. The blonde frowned up at her sleepily.

"Um, does anyone not?" she asked back matter of factly, "Do we have to have one of those 'what does this mean' talks now?" Holly could tell that the other woman was starting to fade a little, struggling to keep her eyes open. She bit her lip.

"I like you," she admitted bluntly, emblazoned by the other woman's probability of not remembering a word of this the next day. What would be the harm of admitting how strongly she felt and getting an uncensored reaction from the usually guarded cop.

"Gail, I-" the covers rustled with movement and then she felt the other woman's hand settle gently on top of hers, fingers resting oh so lightly against her skin, so lightly that it almost didn't feel real.

"It's been a really long time since I fell for someone. Like really, fell for them. But I have. For you, I mean. Fallen faster I think than I've really ever fallen for anyone previously. I think that you are completely amazing." For a moment she thought that maybe Gail had fallen asleep. That would be just her luck. The room was silent, and she let out a long breath. When the blonde opened her eyes again Holly couldn't read them at all. Gail pushed herself up on her elbows, hair falling messily around her shoulders as she did so, leaning up to press her mouth against Holly's and kissing her, so softly, chapped lips capturing her own, breath warm in her mouth. She pulled away slowly.

"I'm kind of hungry," the blonde mumbled quietly. Holly was at a loss for words. She breathed in heavily, trying to fill her lungs again and regain composure.

"What do you want to eat?" she asked softly.

"A hamburger." The pathologist raised her eyebrows, her mouth pulling up at one corner.

"Hmmm, maybe something I can actually cook?"

"Toast? Or is that too hard?" the blonde's quick wit was a little slower on pain meds, but persistent none the less. Holly smirked and tucked a soft strand of hair behind the other woman's ear.

"Chicken soup it is."

When she returned twenty minutes later with the, admittedly out of a tin, hot chicken soup, Gail was fast asleep. Holly switched off the light and retreated quietly, taking the soup with her.

Three hours, a bowl of chicken soup and two cups of coffee later, Holly was sitting on the couch attempting to do work. Attempting being the operative word, as she was struggling to force her mind to concentrate. She glanced wanting-ly at the empty coffee cup beside her, but restrained and pulled her eyes back to the thick case file on her lap. The bright red of her work shirt pooled around the top of her thighs as she sat with legs awkwardly crossed on the sofa, one knee forced to sit up at an angle against the back of the lounge. Her pants lay discarded on the opposite side of the couch. She shifted uncomfortably and tried again to turn her focus to the words on the page in front of her, but the letters swam and danced before her eyes, until they were a mass of small black lines on crisp white paper. It was probably her intense concentration on trying to concentrate that meant she didn't even notice until she heard the shuffling behind her, and looked up, heart racing, to see Gail standing at the end of the lounge sleepily. The blonde's hair was sticking up at all angles, and her eyes were heavy. Holly quickly placed the file down on the coffee table and rose to her feet, moving towards the officer.

"Gail, are you okay?" she asked gently.

"Mhmm," Gail replied croakily, reaching out her hand and grasping a hold of Holly's were it hung by her side. The blonde's hands were warm now as they intertwined with her own.

"Please come to bed with me," she asked tiredly. Holly felt a small pang inside her chest, and nodded quickly, letting the other woman lead her back into the bedroom, still dark, but darker now, the sun having set completely. They were both swallowed by the black as Holly gently closed the door behind them and let Gail pull her into the bed.

...

Holly's alarm went off, as usual, at exactly 4:45am, but this morning it felt louder than ever. It took every thing she had to untangle herself from the petite blonde beside her and reach across, out of the warmth of the blankets, to silence her phone where it sat on the night stand. When she retreated back into the bed Gail rolled over, into her arms, her injured hand settling on the brunette's chest. Holly bit her lip, smiling sleepily to herself as she settled back into the pillows and fell back asleep.

She was only woken, an hour later, by movement on the mattress, and cold penetrating the warm cocoon of the bed. She groaned loudly in protest, reaching out, fingers grazing the material of the pyjama shirt Gail was wearing as the blonde climbed out. Holly rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked up. The room was just out of focus, Gail's blurred figure pulling off the pyjamas and putting on her old uniform from the day before, which Holly had left neatly folded on top of the dresser. The brunette frowned and reached over blindly, feeling across the cool wooden top of the bedside table to find her glasses. She slipped them on and pulled the room back into focus.

"Gail?" she asked tentatively, sitting up in bed. The blonde, now fully in focus, turned around mid movement as she pulled her uniform jacket back on. The heavy piece of clothing moved stiffly around her as stood awkwardly in place, shifting from foot to foot.

"Yea?" she asked nonchalantly, digging into her pocket and pulling out her mobile phone. Holly pulled the covers up around her body to stay warm.

"You're leaving already?" she asked, slightly self conscious of the pathetically worried tone to her voice, "you know they gave you a couple of days of work, right?" Gail glanced down at her phone screen, and then looked back up, her expression casual.

"Yea, I've just got some stuff to do."

"Oh," Holly slipped out of the bed, her bare feet landing on the carpet and cold air sending goose bumps up her bare legs, "Right. Okay." She paused, awkwardly, pulling uncomfortably at the bottom of her t-shirt, but when she let it go the material rose back up to sit against the top of her thighs.

"Gail, is everything okay?" She tried not to look too concerned, but she couldn't help it. The blonde shoved the mobile back into her pocket and looked up.

"Yea, I'm fine. Traci is swinging by soon to pick me up, so, I should make sure I have everything."

"Not going to be hard - you didn't exactly bring an overnight bag," Holly replied, starting to get a little annoyed, "Gail, come on, what's really going on? You were weird all last night, now you're being even weirded. Did something else happen yesterday?" Gail's face turned from relaxed to stoney, pulling out the classic cold Gail stare, the one that had first made the brunette swoon on their meeting. This time it only made the pathologist feel uneasy.

"Uhm, lunchbox, in case you've forgotten I was pretty high on drugs last night. Not exactly a mystery as to why I was probably acting weird," the blonde rolled her eyes sarcastically, "look, I'm gunna go wait outside. I'll um... text you, sometime. Okay?" Her hands were shoved deep into the pockets of the jacket defensively as she begun to move slowly towards the bedroom door. Holly watched her walk out, biting down so heavily on her bottom lip she was certain she was going to draw blood. Every single part of her wanted to go after Gail, to grab her by the hand and tell her that she was being an idiot, and kiss her. But she didn't.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, so due to the fact that I am not psychic obviously a few things happened this season which won't match up entirely with my story prior to season five episodes airing. This includes Holly's friends, so I know I wrote something previously about her only having two friends and Felicity being one of those, but let's just expand that to three okay? haha 
> 
> I really hope you guys like this chapter and the direction I'm heading in! Thank you to those VERY kind people who take the time to write reviews, because you don't know how much that boosts my motivation to keep writing. And to anyone who bothers to read at all, thank you! :) I appreciate it, and it makes me want to finish just knowing there is anyone out there still reading this haha

It had been three days. A little over three days actually. Approximately 84 hours and 25 minutes if you were being precise. Not that Holly had been counting. And for said three days the pathologist had buried herself in work to try and distract from the utter lack of any form of communication from Gail since the blonde had walked out. Holly had been back to her apartment a total of one time since leaving for work that same morning, and only because she had found herself in dire need of clothes. She had spent the past three days in a cycle of drinking what she knew was a dangerous amount of caffeine, working until she crashed, sleeping uncomfortably at her desk for a minimum number of hours and then waking to repeat the process. On the plus side, she had gotten a significant amount of work done, probably more in those three days then in the past two weeks.

Holly rubbed her eyes tiredly as she stared at the computer screen, inputting numbers robotically from her notes. She paused and let out a long yawn, eyes scrunching up and watering slightly, the droplets clinging to her eyelashes and making the light from the screen streak for a moment before she blinked them away. That morning has been a field day. Felicity had woken her at eight, placing a mug of coffee on her desk (instant, no sugar, but it's the thought that counts) and gently shaking her.

"You're needed on scene, Stewart," the blonde had instructed as Holly sat bolt up right, slightly dazed, and reached instinctively for the steaming cup of coffee. It had burnt her tongue a little as she gulped the first mouthful without thinking, and she had recoiled, the tip of her tongue throbbing in protest and her taste buds awash with the strong, bitter flavour.

"Officer on scene?" she asked tentatively before agreeing. Felicity quirked an eyebrow at her, but responded.

"Detective Nash is in charge, that's all I know," she replied, shrugging as she placed the message she'd written out down on the desk, and gave Holly a bright smile before leaving.

When she had arrived on scene Traci was in the middle of dealing with some witnesses, the pathologist was a little glad in a way not to have to talk to her. She went methodically about her work, collecting the necessary samples, analysing the scene, taking down notes. Every once in a while, without thinking about it, she had glanced around, just checking in case the sarcastic blonde plaguing her thoughts had managed to appear without her noticing. Unfortunately she had no such luck. However just as she had been finishing up one of the officer's had approached her, somewhat nervously, a somewhat goofy smile plastered across her face. The brunette looked familiar, no doubt from a previous case Holly had thought at the time as this woman opened her mouth to speak.

"Hi, um, Holly right?" the officer had asked her, and she had nodded tentatively, "You're Gail's friend. You picked her up from the hospital the other day, right?" Holly's stomach had twisted at this, but she nodded again to confirm.  _Friend, right._

"Dov said they've got her on strict bed rest, I bet she's going nuts," the officer laughed awkwardly, and Holly mustered a tight smile in response, unsure of what to say. The other woman glanced down, mouth falling into a more serious expression.

"Listen, was Gail okay, the other day when you picked her up?" she asked, "please don't tell her I said anything, it's just, we had kind of, a fight." She had been scuffing her toe sheepishly as she admitted this, almost knocking over one of Holly's carefully placed markers in the process before she turned beetroot red and stopped.  _Uh huh. Bingo_. Things suddenly were starting to make sense. Holly wanted to pry further but knew it wasn't her place.

"To be honest, um..." she glanced at the name stitched into the woman's jacket, "McNally, right? I think... you need to wait it out, and try to talk to her when she comes back. She'll come around. Eventually." The officer nodded slowly and gave her a smile, hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets. The bulky clothing item kept reminding Holly of Gail, and of that night, of gently pulling it off of the blonde's weary shoulders when she put her to bed, of watching her pull the jacket back on the next morning as the pathologist had sat cold and confused in her bed, watching the other woman give her the cold shoulder without reason and then leave.

"Right, no worries. Thanks Holly." The other woman had nodded and turned to walk away, called over by one of the detectives as she did so.

Holly hadn't stopped thinking about the conversation all afternoon. She had known there was something wrong with Gail, there had been a vibe the moment she had picked the blonde up, but she had just discarded it repeatedly as the effects of the strong painkillers and not bothered to try and delve any deeper. While now she was glad she was right, that there was some  _semi_ rational explanation for the other woman's behaviour, she was left guessing as to what exactly this fight was about that had caused Gail to bolt like that. Now that there was a reason any amount of anger she had, had burning like hot coals inside her chest was dampened out. All she felt was a sort of protective desire to fix what ever was wrong. After hours of disciplined restraint she caved and pulled her mobile phone out of the top desk drawer. She knew the blonde well enough by now to realise that maybe a modicum of space had been necessary, but she'd given her that and enough was enough. She also knew the officer well enough to know that Holly couldn't just sit idly by and  _let_  Gail push her way. The drawer creaked horribly as she opened it, almost like a warning, but she ignored it, opening up her text messages and typing quickly before she could change her mind.

_Haven't heard from you in three days - starting to think you may have died from over relaxation, slacker._

She hoped this came out as casual and teasing as she meant it to and not creepily persistent, seeing as she had never received any reply from the five texts she had sent Gail on the day of the morning she had left. She stared at the screen for a solid five minutes before realising that maybe an instantaneous response was not likely, and placed it down on the desk next to her. An hour later she was attempting to formulate the bones for an article she had been asked to write, when her phone vibrated loudly against the wood, the noise startling her in the silence of the empty lab. Half the staff had gone home for the night, and she was one of only a few still working down in the morgue area, meaning that it was eerily silent, and what would otherwise be an irate noise echoed five times as loud in the cold, clinical space. When her heart rate calmed again, after several deep breaths, she shook off the nerves and opened up the message.

_Have been sleeping for almost 72 hours straight._

She frowned unhappily. The first message in over three and a half days, since the blonde had practically brooded out of her apartment (if such a thing were possible), and that was all she got? She pursed her lips moodily and typed back.

_Is that your excuse?_

She let the phone drop back onto the table perhaps a little more heavily that was necessary and stood up, the office chair sliding back behind her, wheels squeaking on the linoleum floor. She wiggled off her lab coat - the one she had, as usual, forgotten she was even wearing, and walking over to hang it on the hook by the door. The cold air of the overly air-conditioned space bristled against her skin. She shivered and walked out, down the hall, sneakers scuffing on the floor, until she reached the break room down the hall. The light was off and she switched it on as she entered, the fluorescents flickering momentarily before steadying. She opened the fridge, starred into it's blank interior at the assortment of food, and realised that she was not remotely hungry. If anything, she felt mildly sick. She groaned heavily, and closed it again. Coffee. She needed coffee. When she reached her desk again, a mug of steaming hot coffee in her hands, the screen of her phone was lit up, Gail's name blinking up at her. She bit her lip and opened the message.

_For what?_

If it was anyone else Holly knew that even  _her_  calm temperament would be being tested, but for some reasons she found it hard to get mad when she so clearly knew what the blonde was doing. It was time to stop beating around the bush - Gail was a more to the point kind of girl after all.

_I am feeling a cat in the tree vibe._

She collapsed back into the chair and it rolled back a little with her weight, before she used her feet to anchor herself and pull herself back in towards the desk. Reaching up, she tugged at the elastic that held her hair back in place, wiggling it free till her hair could fall around her shoulders. The strain that had been pulling at her temples all afternoon seemed to relax, and she ran a hand back through the tangled brown, teasing it out, fingers catching slightly in small knots here and there till she eased them out. She blew on her coffee and watched her phone till the screen lit up again, and she practically pounced on the device with her hand, sliding her finger clumsily over the screen to open it.

_For there to be such a vibe there would need to be a tree..._

She read the text three times over, and rolled her eyes, feeling slightly irritated at the blonde's utter stubbornness.

_Message received. When you decide to stop being an asshole, I'll be here._

She pushed the phone back across the desk, sliding it over the smooth grain. She watched it hit a bump in the wood and clunk to a stop. The pathologist slipped her hands around the sides of her coffee cup, heat radiating through the ceramic sides and warming her hands. The phone lit up again, and she ignored it, using all her self restraint not to reach for it. She blew calmly on the surface of her drink, watching the steam rise off of the surface in wafting spires. She lifted the cup to her mouth and took a long, slow sip, letting the strong bitter flavour, sweetened by several teaspoons of sugar, wash over her tongue, and the caffeine seemed to wash through her body, even though she knew that physically speaking it was entirely implausible for it to enter her system before she'd even swallowed. The hot liquid swirled around the pallet of her mouth, pushing against her teeth like insistent waves on a cliff face, and she thought about kissing Gail, about the sensation of the blonde's warm mouth, her chapped lips brushing against Holly's own, so vulnerable, and making the pathologist wish to kiss better every small crack in Gail's soft pink skin. She swallowed hard, and forced her eyes to open, casting them down unthinkingly towards the phone. (4) new messages read across the screen. She let out a heavy breath, that seemed to slide out over her bottom lip dispersing an aroma of coffee, and picked it up.

_Holly._

_Lunchbox._

_nerd._

_... Hols?_

She typed back a short message and hit send.

_yes?_

She hadn't even put the phone down again and the reply came through.

_I'm not very good at this._

Holly tried to suppress an amused smirk that was tugging at her lips.

_I noticed._

Her breath was caught in the back of her throat, and though she knew her lungs were capable of exhaling she couldn't seem to force them to.

**Gail:** _This is never going to work out well. I'm just not a relationship person._

The breath finally pushed past her lips, heavily. Her fingers drummed on the table top as she read it over again, before texting back her reply, hitting send and rising to her feet.

**Holly:** _So you seem to have decided. But just so you know, I'm not going anywhere._

She leant over her computer, saving her open document and then shutting everything down. Her stomach was an uncomfortable knot in the bottom of her abdomen. She shoved her mobile into her pocket, collecting her oversized duffle bag from behind the desk and hitting the light switch on the way out. The lab fell dark, and she paused a moment, staring thoughtfully at her office in the dark, thinking back on the first day she had met Gail, watching the blonde walk out,  _Oh, I just meant I don't like people_  hanging in the air behind her, and how she was entirely fascinated by the sarcastic, snappy, drop dead gorgeous officer. She turned and walked back down the hall, footsteps echoing. Every step felt like ten. Her shoes felt like they were made of led. As she exited into the carpark she felt her pocket vibrate, and she squirmed uncomfortably at the sensation, reaching quickly to pull it out, her heart racing. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the screen, and she squinted through her glasses to read the name.  _Lisa_. Not the name she had been hoping for. She slid her thumb across the screen and held the phone up to her ear.

"Hellllo," she answered, but her voice didn't carry it's normal bounce.

"Have you eaten?" her friend asked, jumping straight into the conversation, and then continued before Holly could fully get the word 'no' out of her mouth, "Didn't think so. The Senator in ten?" Holly paused, gazing across the carpark at her car, thinking about the warm bed waiting for her at home, and then the empty fridge with week old Chinese take out sitting on the middle shelf. Her stomach rumbled as if to urge her to a decision.

"Okay. I'll see you soon," she replied, and hung up, turning on her heels and walking towards the main road. The Senator was a diner about a block away from the morgue that she and Lisa and Rachel used to go to all the time when she had first started working there. The walk would probably do her good, she thought, as she buried her hands into the pockets of her jeans and began walking quickly down the street. It only took her ten minutes before she was arriving outside the old diner. She walked inside as though entering an old friend's house, hanging her jacket on the coat rack and heading straight towards the further-most booth from the door. She found it filled and was about to walk back when she realised the person filling the seat was Lisa. The brunette grinned at her and leant forward, her elbows on the metal table top, hands creating a rest under her chin.

"I ordered you an orange juice," the other woman informed her as she slid into the seat opposite. Holly gave her a tired smile, running a hand through her hair.

"Thanks."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: this chapter has made me realise a) how unfit I am, b) how badly I need to get back into tennis, and c) how little direction this story has.
> 
> hopefully you do not hate it.
> 
> I do have some kind of plan here just fyi. Hopefully you can see it unfolding.
> 
> Thank you for continuing to read :) and I truly appreciate the very sweet people who take the time out to leave a review!

...

"Holly, you have been saying no to my set ups for several weeks yet refuse to say if you are seeing someone. This is ridiculous. Is there a girl or not?" Holly chewed for a moment, letting the silence drag out, and Lisa grow more impatient as she waited for an answer, then swallowed.

"It's complicated," she answered, sounding dubious herself at this reply. She had yet to tell Lisa the full story about Gail, because if anyone was going to make a rash judgement about someone, it was Lisa. The woman could be a little shallow (hello, dated a former patient after her boob job had fully healed). Why was it that they clicked so well? At first Holly had thought she was a pompous asshole, but over time she had come to appreciate Lisa for all her faults and strengths combined. The other woman was fiercely loyal and protective when it came to her friends. She knew better than to even try to explain the Gail situation, that was more of a story for Rachel, who would be far more understanding.

"It's really not," Lisa replied, rolling her eyes, "Are you dating anyone right now?" Holly paused for a second. That shouldn't be a hard question. She knew that despite how much she wanted the answer to be yes, it wasn't. She thought of Gail's text earlier that evening, of the total absence of any reply since her last message, and frowned grumpily.

"Well, I guess it's not like there's a tree, so…" she thought out loud, and trailed off as she pushed the mashed potato around her plate moodily. When she looked back up Lisa had one eyebrow cocked, her mouth an amused smile as she shook her head at her friends antics.

"Have you gone crazier since I last saw you?" she asked before taking another bite of her food. Holly laughed.

"No. Well, probably yes, but, it's a metaphor," she explained vaguely, waving her hand in the air as she spoke, as thought this somehow qualified the answer further, and then took a mouthful of orange juice. The diner was bustling with people, and the couple behind them kept laughing loudly every five minutes, but an irritating kind of laugh that made Holly really want to yell at them to shut the fuck up, which wasn't very her, so she knew she was pretty tired at this point.

"Not even going to touch that with a ten foot pole," Lisa replied with a knowing look, "My point, loony tunes, is that you need to go on a date, have dinner with a nice girl, maybe take her out for coffee. Relax, stop waiting around for whatever this might be, might not be thing is that you have going on. You deserve better." Holly watched the ice cubes bob up and down in what remained of her drink, gently poking at them with her straw to perpetuate the movement. When she looked back up she observed Lisa's expression and sighed.

"You already set me up, didn't you?" The other woman gave her a guilty smile, that very quickly expanded into a grin.

"You're going to love her. She is exactly your type," she insisted. Oh, so she's a witty, snippy, adorable blonde cop with an attitude problem and a heart too big for her own good? she thought, before mentally kicking herself. Lisa was watching her expectantly. She let out a low groan, slumping back in her seat, her head gently bumping against the wooden back of the booth.

"If I say yes to one stupid drink with this girl, will that shut you up?" she asked. Lisa seemed to think it over for a moment.

"... Only for about two weeks, but yes," the other woman replied. Holly chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, before sighing.

"Okay." She practically breathed the word out. Hence likely why her friend had to pause for a moment, unsure if pathologist had said what she thought she had said.

"Okay?" she asked tentatively. Holly laughed.

"I said okay, now go make the call before I can change my mind." She watched Lisa scrambled through her purse, and slide out of the booth, phone in hand, to go make the call. She waited till the other woman was out of sight and reached into her pocket, fishing out her own mobile. No new messages. She stared at the screen, mentally willing it to change, until the lights were so seared into her vision that on closing her eyes she could still see them. She shoved it away again just as Lisa returned to the table, grinning widely.

"Now, what dates work best for you?"

...

Holly spun the racket grip in her palm, staring straight across the net to where her tennis partner was preparing to serve. She had somehow talked Felicity into having a hit with her, though she didn't think the blonde really knew what she was getting herself into when she agreed. It was a Saturday morning, and Holly had been banned from coming into work on the weekend after two more days of coming in early and staying back late and almost falling asleep at her desk twice due to consecutive restless nights. She needed something to keep her mind off of the Gail situation, and sport being her favourite way of letting out repressed feelings, and baseball now being tainted by the memory of the adorable blonde's terrible swing, she had asked Felicity to go for a hit with her. Just a friendly game to kill some time. However when it came to tennis the natural competitor in her came out, and unfortunately for poor Felicity (who had only played a few times on and off several years ago) it was worse when she was in such a mood as she was now. Felicity served and Holly ran forward, hitting a smooth forehand that sliced across the court, straight past the blonde and perfectly clipping the white line. This was the third time in ten minutes that Holly had won the point on her first return. Felicity looked back up, her shoulders simultaneously slumping downwards looking defeated.

"How much longer do we have to do this for?" she asked, walking back towards the basket of tennis balls in the corner of the court, "When you said a hit of tennis I was thinking; me looking cute in a tennis skirt, demurely hitting a couple of balls over the net before we grabbed some coffee? Not like, serious exercise," she moaned. Holly let out a loud laugh - probably the first since dinner with Lisa - but it sounded hollow as it echoed out of her mouth. She pushed her glasses back up her nose from where they had slid during play, and flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder.

"Okay, last game, I promise," she insisted, grinning as she stepped back behind the baseline to wait. Felicity bounced the ball awkwardly, what had once been a confident if not slightly flawed serve, now flawed and nervous as well. As the blonde tossed the ball, a sound behind them caught Holly's ear, enough to throw her as the ball collided with Felicity's racket and began to propel it's self diagonally across the court towards her. Holly paused, the sound still ringing in her ear, and by the time she snapped to her sense and ran forwards her timing was off, her racket swung through missing the ball completely and she stood looking a little dumbfounded for a moment as Felicity stood grinning at her, jumping up and down.

"ACE!" she yelled excitedly, "Did you loose that on purpose just to make me feel better? Cos, I have to be honest, it worked," Felicity was grinning from ear to ear as Holly turned her head, glancing backwards across the park. The park on a Saturday morning was always busy, runners and joggers and walkers filling the paths, the tennis courts booked out, the grass turned into a temporary bootcamp, the playground equipment crawling with children. It was the noises, or more accurately the voices, coming from the basketball court that had drawn her attention. She sucked in her bottom lip as she watched. Dov and Chris were on the court, in disturbingly short gym shorts, attempting to verse a couple of young guys who'd been having a game. Chris was okay, Dov was fairly hopeless though. What drew Holly's eyes however was the surly blonde slumped on the park bench beside the court, watching with a bored look across her face. The pathologist's stomach clenched at the sight of her, blonde hair pulled back in a high pony tail, fitting gym clothes sitting comfortably around her lithe form. For someone who ate so much, who knew where it was going. Dov kept running over to her, panting, begging her to hand him the water bottle.

"Wimp," Gail scoffed throwing the bottle up to him and watching him drain it quickly, sweat sliding down his forehead, "Dov, I don't know if you can survive this. Maybe knitting is more your thing." Dov glared at her and threw the drink bottle back before rejoining the game, taking a pass from Chris, fumbling and having the ball snatched out of his loose grip. Holly was lost in the vision of Gail's signature smirk, perfect pink lips curling smugly as she watched her friends in amusement.

"Holly!" Felicity yelled out loudly behind her, sounding mildly irritated. The pathologist had a feeling this wasn't the first time the other woman had called out to her, only the first time she had heard. She froze in place, her cheeks flaring bright red as she tried to subtly look away before the blonde glanced up to spot her. She looked back and glared her tennis partner down.

"Hey isn't that your hot friend from the morgue?" she heard Chris ask loudly from behind her, and she couldn't help glancing back around again to where both boys had momentarily stopped playing, looking over in her direction. Chris gave her an awkward smile as he saw her looking, and Dov was laughing at him until Chris threw the basketball at the back of his head. Gail gave her a small sheepish smile and got up from the seat, walking towards her. Holly's tennis dress was suddenly feeling incredibly short and mildly embarrassing, she tugged at the bottom of the breathable material, casually attempting to pull it further down her legs and failing miserably. Gail semi sauntered up to the edge of the fenced off court, leaning against the doorway almost nervously as Holly approached her. The pathologist gave her a tight smile as they came within speaking range.

"Hi," she hoped she didn't come across as too kurt, but she wasn't really sure what to feel at this particular point. Were they on or off, friends or nothing? She tried not to get frustrated just thinking about it. The blonde ducked her head and scuffed her incredibly clean sneakers on the edge of the tennis court, not daring to step in.

"Hey," she replied. Her voice was incredibly soft, husky and fragile, and god Holly had to admit, really sexy. How did Gail just seemlessly do that sexy voice? That made her simultaneously want to give her a bone crushing hug and also rip all of her clothes off. Holly felt her stomach twist in a whole other kind of way as she watched those blue eyes glance up towards her again, sun light catching in them as she did so and moving like light through shallow water.

"What are you doing up so early? I didn't think morning was your time," Holly commented lightly, tapping the end of her tennis racket against the toe of her shoe. Since when were they so awkward? She leant into the fence and gave Gail a small smile. The blonde seemed to pick straight up at this.

"Believe me, I was dragged kicking and screaming. But, Chris is going through a thing, so Dov is making me be extra nice to him," the blonde shrugged as though it were no big thing. It was a very big thing, Gail didn't get out of bed before ten on a weekend for just anyone. The pathologist had to swallow back down the jealous feeling that was crawling at the back of her throat.

"Nice shoes by the way. They look barely warn," Holly nodded down to the pristine white runners on the officer's feet. Gail cast her eyes down again and self consciously shifted her weight in the aforementioned footwear. There was literally not a single mark on them.

"I bought them three years ago, and wore them once," she replied candidly, giving Holly a smile, "Hey, about the other night?" Holly couldn't help noticing that the other woman's eyes turned a lighter shade of blue when she was feeling vulnerable, an electric, summer sky kind of blue.

"Gail," she spoke the other woman's name gently, as though it took a tremendous effort to form the word on her tongue, it felt like it did, "I meant what I said. I'm not going anywhere, I'm not just going to let you push me away because you're upset, or going through something, or whatever it is that's going on with you. However, I am not going to force myself on you either." She watched the other woman's face, as Gail's features contorted into an unreadable expression. Holly tried to keep her own face neutral as she waited for some kind of response. The blonde seemed to be struggling to construct a sentence, opening her mouth and then pausing uncertainly.

"Lunchbox..." she began, pulling an unintentional smile across Holly's lips, "I think I jumped the gun with the whole, sleeping with you thing," the pathologist had to stop from scoffing, "Everything I said the other night is still true-"

"Gail," Holly interrupted, sighing, "If we moved too fast, or you just don't think you want to be in a relationship with me, you know, we can go back to just being friends?" She wasn't really sure what else to say, and in all honesty a part of her knew it would be hard to stop herself when it came to Gail, from saying things, from reaching out and touching her, but the other part of her also knew that here was this incredible woman who she had connected with instantly, and she really didn't want to loose that. She pulled herself out of her own spiralling thoughts to focus on Gail's face, expression caught in a mixture of relief and hurt and confusion that was such an entirely Gail centric expression, and probably not something that could be pulled off by many others.

"Oh. Yeah, I mean, okay," she mumbled, nodding slowly, before something behind them caught her attention and she furrowed her brow somewhat adorably, "Uhm, your friend is giving us a weird look." Holly glanced back and saw Felicity standing at the net, watching them curiously. She saw them looking over and smiled unabashedly, giving them a small wave. Holly felt her cheeks colour as she returned her full attention to the woman in front of her. The way that Gail was leaning against the door way in the fencing, one hand holding onto the wire linking, her body leaning on an angle, reminded Holly of seeing her silhouette in the window after dropping her off that first night.

"That's Felicity, from work. Sorry she's a little too inquisitive for her own good," she explained, her hands moving in the air in front of her as thought these strange and random hand gestures shed more light on the awkward situation, another nervous habit. She felt Gail's smirk focused on her, but more of a shy smirk than usual, one that just dimpled her cheeks and creased one corner of her lips more than the other, something in her eyes reading kind of like she found Holly endearing.

"Well I should leave you to your game. I know what you're like with your sports, nerd," Gail moved backwards, nodding her head in an attempt a nonchalant goodbye, and then almost stumbling on a particularly large clump of grass. Holly giggled, the first time in a week that such a sound had come out of her mouth.

"Don't worry, I'm kicking her ass," she replied, grinning and adjusting the position of her glasses as she watched the blonde walk away.

"I have no doubt," Gail called back over her shoulder. Holly watched her walking a way for a moment longer, probably not in the way that a friend should do, before jogging back over to the court to find Felicity grinning at her knowingly.

"So this is the girl, huh?" she was more stating than asking as she walked backwards to the baseline, "Why do I get the feeling this one last game is suddenly going to be extended to several?" Holly did her best attempt at batting her eyelashes, which didn't quite come across as she had hoped but Felicity's smile in return seemed to indicate she was in acceptance. It took an incredible amount of self control not to keeping glancing over at the basketball courts. More self control than it took not to eat chocolate. More than it had taken the one time she attempted to forgo caffeine for a week, and that was saying something. She was absoloutley thrashing poor Felicity, although her co-worker was being an incredibly good sport about it. After winning the set she finally agreed to stop. She turned around, with the pretence of picking up some stray tennis balls that had rolled into the corner, and tried to surreptitiously catch a glimpse of the officers. Dov was, very amusingly, lying flat on his back in the grass breathing at an unnaturally fast pace, as though he couldn't possibly get enough air into his lungs, while Chris was standing near his feet chatting to Gail. The blonde looked mildly bored by the particular conversation topic, her blue eyes looking straight past him to glance over at Holly. The pathologist dropped her gaze to the balls she was awkwardly holding clutched against her chest, one wrong movement away from dropping them all. She walked quickly back to the other side of the court and dropped them into the basket, before picking up her bag. Felicity was slumped in the ground against the fence draining her water bottle.

"Good game," Felicity breathed heavily, "Coffee now, please?" Holly laughed as she pulled out her phone.

"Yes, as promised, coffee," she mumbled, distracted by new message icon flashing on her screen, accompanied by Gail's name. She glanced up and over to spot the blonde heading back to her car. She caught Gail's eye momentarily before the boys drew her focus back, and then quickly opened the texts to read.

_You were right - you really are kicking her ass._

_Did this Felicity do something to you in a past life?_

_Remind me never to play tennis with you. Ever._

_Did I mention that I love your outfit? (this is sarcasm. in case you've forgotten my texting tone.)_

Holly tried to stop herself from grinning as she quickly texted back.

_Could anyone ever forget you? You are very memorable. Not necessarily in a good way._


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: thank you so much for the sweet reviews i received on the last chapter, especially CloudXLightning and esmeqg.
> 
> Thank you to beanie-leather-peck and ausgollyfan from tumblr for your encouragement. And especially to Gailpeckholly from tumblr for reading this over before hand, listening to me ramble and helping me finish this chapter! :)
> 
> hope you guys like this chapter and the direction this is headed. Any feedback you have is always welcome :):)
> 
> p.s. Probably only a couple more chapters left!
> 
> ...

 

Holly was lying vertically across her double bed, with her head just over the edge of the mattress, dark hair a waterfall extending down to the floor and pooling on the carpet. Her glasses were barely balanced on the bridge of her nose and she held her phone tightly in her hands, texting Gail.

_Steve just gave me a heads up about something this week, I might be a little hard to contact over the next few days._

' _That's incredibly vague, 00_ 7' she replied, hitting send, and letting the phone sit against her chest for a moment. The afternoon sun was pouring in through her open curtains onto the bed and filling the room, her window open just enough for a cool breeze to whistle through the crack, and the comforting sounds of her busy street on a sunday afternoon to filter in. Pages of paper lay strewn all across her quilt cover, photographs and data stuffed into colour coordinated files in a pile at the foot of the bed. Her attempts at a productive afternoon of pre-work, work (which she had been informed was the height of nerd-dom) had failed the moment her mobile vibrated on the oak bedside table where she had left it. Getting out of the blue texts from Gail was probably one of her favourite things ever. More than anything she loved the fact that somewhere else in the city the crazy blonde was going about her day and having a thought and immediately thinking to share it with Holly. She tried not to think of it in such an obnoxious way, but she couldn't help it. She wriggled to try and find a more comfortable position and the loose fitting t-shirt, which was all that she was wearing apart from underwear, moved up over her stomach against her will, exposing the bare skin to open air and causing her to shiver, just as another message came through.

_If I told you any more, I'd have to kill you._

She grinned as she read it, trying to ignore the flutter in the bottom of her stomach. She got the sensation every single time, that kind of giddy nervousness flooding her system like a strong shot of alcohol on an empty stomach. It did slightly encumber her recent endeavour to be friends with Gail. It took an unbelievable amount of strength to keep herself in check, everything felt so natural with the blonde that she had to keep reminding herself of the current situation.

'I _'d like to see you tr_ y' she texted back, staring at the screen for a moment after hitting send. She sat up and ran a hand through her tussled hair, letting it fall through her fingers as she waited for the slight dizzy sensation from the rush of blood to her head to pass. She shivered again, sitting up she was now directly in the path of the breeze gently blowing in from the window. She pulled the t-shirt tighter around her body, all the while thinking to herself that this act in no way helped in regulating her temperature. She adjusted her glasses and slid off of the mattress, walking over to close the window but pausing as she reached it, looking down at the small space between her building and the next, the thin alleyway sandwiched between the tall brick walls. The shadows were quickly climbing up the opposite wall as the sun sunk lower in the sky. She leant her head against the glass and let out a long, steady breath that momentarily fogged the window in a stencil around the shape of her forehead and nose, which just as quickly disappeared as she pulled back. She had unconsciously still been clutching the mobile tightly in her hand, waiting for the next message, waiting for an excuse to drag the conversation out longer, to keep talking to Gail for as long as she could.

...

Over the next few days Holly barely heard from Gail, due mostly to some big case that the officer was working on, that she 'apparently' couldn't talk about, although after a few begging texts from the pathologist she had caved and promised to divulge all the next time they saw one and other. Every once in a while the blonde would send her a message such as _'just letting you know I'm still alive_ ' or ' _remind me, how many hours can the body go without sleep?_ '.

' _While still functioning at a reasonable capacity? or just still functioning?_ ' she had replied, stopping at a park bench to quench her thirst. It had been six in the morning so the natural assumption was that Gail was pulling an all-nighter (for, what was it, the third night in a row?), because the blonde rarely if ever got up that early, and even if she did Holly couldn't imagine her maintaining the cognitive ability to send a coherent text message unless there was a ridiculous amount of caffeine involved. She'd pushed the lid of her drink bottle closed, shoved the mobile into her pocket and kept jogging. The thought of Gail working on this big case worried her a little, especially when she still had so few details.

The day after Holly had just pulled back into her driveway after work when she received Gail's texts.

_Who the fuck invented meat cockails?_

_Someone with a very twisted mind - thats who._

Holly pulled her keys out of the ignition and the cars lights turned off, leaving her sitting alone in her car in the dark. What the fuck is a meat cocktail? It sounded disgusting. She pulled her feet up onto the seat, her knees resting against the steering wheel, as she replied.

_Hi?_

_'Hiiiiiiii'_ came the blonde's response almost immediately. The pathologist smirked wryly, jingling her car keys in her hand. The cold, heavy metal clunked in her palm, the jagged indentures of the keys pushing against her skin as she weighed up whether there was any point putting them away.

' _Are you drunk?_ ' she asked, but she was fairly sure she already knew the answer.

_Had to get rid of the taste - so i downed the rest of the Jack Daniel's._

Holly shook her head, although aware that there was none there to see but her, observing her own expression in the review mirror - one of mild amusement and a small amount of concern. She clenched her hand around the car keys and quickly shoved them into her backpack where it sat on the passenger seat, before kicking open her door. The inner lights clicked on as she did so, and she quickly texted back before exiting the car.

_The most reasonable reaction, of course. Make sure you drink lots of water before you sleep._

She kept the phone held in one hand, her backpack clenched in the other, and pushed the car door closed with her ass, the light inside clicking off again as it did so with a thud. 'Right move, Holly' she told herself as she walked up into the lobby. She was halfway across the empty room when she felt her mobile vibrate inside her clenched hand. She pressed the button for the elevator and glanced at the screen. Gail's text flashed up at her.

 _Lunchboxxxxxx_.

' _Yes_?' she typed back quickly, fingers stumbling over the touch screen as she heard the elevator doors opening in front of her. She almost walked into the man trying to exit, apologising as she ducked around him (or at least what was supposed to be an apology but was more a mashed scramble of vaguely recognisable sounds spilling from her mouth, she might as well have been speaking Spanish). The metal doors closed behind her and she swiped her key and hit the button for her floor, her palms feeling moist and warm against the back of her phone cover as she waited. She checked, but there was no signal, so she focused instead on the rising numbers above the door. The elevator slowed to a steady halt and she stopped one single step out of the lift to check her phone again. In seconds Gail's name was blinking up at her, and she quickly opened the message.

_I miss you._

Her heart beat quickened at the words on the screen. She closed the message, let out a steady breath, and then opened it again, as though it might have changed. How was she supposed to react to this? Not that Gail would have thought that far ahead, her being Gail after all, and drunk, not the best combination. Holly breathed out the mild irritation almost immediately, the feeling dissipating with the warm air blowing over her bottom lip. It was near impossible to be anything close to angry with the blonde. Why was that? Perhaps because she immediately imagined those electric blue eyes staring back at her, filled with emotions that the blonde could not stop but did her best to contain, refusing to let them taint the words that slipped past her lips, but they still stirred there in her gaze. And Holly could read them like one of her favourite books; the ones she had read so many times over she could predicate the first line of the next page before turning it, the ones she had scribbled in the margins of before old enough to truly understand the meaning of second edition classic, the ones that sat on the top of her bookshelf, dog eared and well loved. The thoughts washed over her and without really thinking about it she texted back, 'Oh.' Exactly what she was thinking, but not exactly the thought out answer she had meant to send. She sucked in her bottom lip nervously, and looked around, realising she was still standing outside the closed lift, in the middle of her hall way, heavy backpack in hand. She hesitated before taking a step, glancing back at her phone.

_Come over._

Her hand was reaching over and pressing the down button beside the elevator before she had a chance to rationally think through the action, and think better of it.

_To your apartment?_

_yes_.

The elevator doors opened behind her and she stepped in.

...

When she pulled up outside the Peck/Epstein/Diaz residence and opened her car door, she could hear laughter echoing down from their partially open window. Gail's giggles cut through the deeper sound of Chris' laugh, partially due to it's higher frequency and partially because Holly's ears unconsciously sought out the sound of her voice. She paused, reaching for her phone where it had been sitting in the centre console, and sending the blonde a message to let her know she was there. Something made Holly feel a little nervous about meeting Gail's best friends, which was ridiculous because she'd met them both before on crime scenes or in the lab. But it felt different now. That nervous churn in the pitt of her stomach started up, like it always did when she was entering a new social situation. Before she had time to chicken out or back down though, the front door flew open, and Gail was grinning at her from the door way, light from the hall flooding out from behind her.

"Took you long enough. Get in here Lunchbox," the blonde leant against the door way patiently, her head tilted slightly to one side as she watched Holly awkwardly fumble with her car keys. When the pathologist reached the threshold Gail was giving her a strange, calm smile that made her suddenly feel incredibly self conscious. She glanced down in case she had her shirt on backwards, or something stuck to her clothes. Nothing. She ran her tongue over her teeth, but it all seemed clear. The blonde giggled at her as she closed the front door behind them.

"What?" Holly asked, exasperated, as Gail led the way up stairs to the living room. The blonde glanced back over her shoulder, giving her that same smile again, unabashedly amused by her friend's antics.

"Sometimes you kind of remind me of this like big, adorable, clumsy puppy," she commented lightly as they climbed. The sentence silenced Holly swiftly for a moment, the brunette taking it in slowly. A puppy? Was that an insult or a compliment? She opened her mouth to ask, but they had reached the living room, where both Dov and Chris were sitting on the sofa looking up at her expectantly. She managed to produce an awkward, lopsided smile in their direction, accompanied by some kind of hand gesture which was meant to be a wave.

"Hi," she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, "I'm Holly." Dov grinned, glancing over to share a look with Chris, and then returning his gaze to her.

"I remember," he sounded amused, "Sit down, grab a drink. They're disgusting." She felt Gail's cool hand latch onto her upper arm gently and tug her in the direction of the kitchen. She followed gladly, letting herself be guided around into the other room, and to the fridge. The blonde's hand released her, finger tips brushing over Holly's skin as she let go and reached to open the refrigerator door. It was incredibly empty. Not just of alcohol, but of food too. And what food there was, a lot of it did not look like it was edible.

"Yea, this is what happens when you live with boys," Gail informed her, rolling her eyes and groaning, "We have no food OR booze. How am I supposed to seduce you without high levels of alcohol?" she muttered, before shoot Holly a cheeky smile. The brunette scoffed.

"I'd like to see you try," she replied, falling back so easily into their usually rhythm, smirking smugly back at the other woman. Gail raised her eyebrows sarcastically.

"I bet you would," she returned, straight faced, and then leant back a little to look past Holly into the living room, "WE HAVE NO ALCOHOL," she bellowed at the boys sitting on the couch, entirely within reasonable hearing distance, "at least none that hasn't been contaminated by some kind of meat product." Dov and Chris waved a noncommittal hand in her direction and kept talking, unperturbed. She glowered in their direction moodily and then turned her gaze back to the pathologist standing next to her, taking a hold of the brunette's wrist and dragging her back out of the kitchen, through the living room.

"We're going to get booze," she informed them as they reached the top of the stairs and begun to descend back down to the entrance, Holly shuffling in tow, throwing them an uncertain smile goodbye.

"Booze run!" she heard the boys chant in a kind of cheery, drunk way, behind them as they reached the bottom step. She raised her eyebrows at Gail as the blonde, somewhat drunk-ly herself, slipped her coat on, hand momentarily getting stuck in the second sleeve. She stepped forward into the other woman's space, reaching inside of the coat and helping her manoeuvre her arm. When Gail's small hand finally peaked out the bottom of the sleeve, pale fingers clenching into the palm of her hand, Holly looked back up at her. The officer was watching her quietly, quiet not only in her lips pressed closed, but also in her eyes, unreadable as they observed her. The pathologist was highly aware of every small breath of space between them, so close she could feel one side of Gail's unbutton coat pressing lightly against her stomach. Suddenly the blonde gave her a small smile and slipped out from where she had been positioned between Holly and the wall. Holly turned, biting her bottom lip, and followed Gail out through the front door, closing it behind her. The blonde was already waiting by the car expectantly, leaning against the passenger side door and grinning at her in the dark.

"You are in far too good of a mood for my liking. What are you up to?" Holly asked as she unlocked the car. Gail shrugged mysteriously.

"Paranoid much, nerd?" she commented, "I think your work has taken a toll on you mentally." She appraised the brunette as she slid into the car, eyes raking back up the pathologist's body slowly. The soft light that escaped the windows of their apartment cast a glow in the blue of Gail's irises as they found their way back up to Holly's face, pausing momentarily on her mouth before coming up to meet her gaze.

"You look tired," she commented, leaning over the centre console and gently touching Holly's cheek, tracing over the structure of her face to find the bags under her eyes, and frowning as she pulled back, "you need to take better care of yourself." The smell of whiskey on her breath lingered in the air around Holly for a moment as the brunette smiled.

"Thank you for that sage advice, drunky," she teased, turning the key in the ignition, the car coming to life as Gail laughed and attempted to clip in her seatbelt, only proving the pathologist's point further when she missed the buckle twice. Holly watched her fondly and turned down the radio - intoxicated Gail tended to lead to singing, which she did actually quiet enjoy, but for now she was enjoyed watching the blonde fumble around slightly hopelessly.

"if anyone looks tired here though, it is certainly you. That case must've been crazy." Gail glanced back up as she finally managed to get the seatbelt safely secured, narrowing her eyes for a moment.

"Are you saying I look bad?" she replied. Holly smirked. Gail Peck was not actually capable of looking bad. It was a scientific impossibility. But she wasn't about to inform the blonde of that and dramatically inflate her ego.

"You look terrible." She tried to keep a straight face as the blonde stared back at her.

"You're a very bad liar," she finally came out with, before reaching forward and turning the radio back up, "I really need to stop being lazy and make you a CD for your car. You taste in music is fairly appalling."

"Who does't love Mariah Carey?"

"... Anyone who is actually cool?"


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is officially the longest chapter of this story I have written so far. And if everything goes according to plan, also the second last chapter. The last one is probably going to be even longer haha So i hope that's okay.
> 
> I hope that if anyone is still bothering to read this, that you have enjoyed it so far, and that you like how I am ending it. I decided to finish it at the season 4 finale, especially considering I am already so far behind this season, and there are a couple of other things that I would really love to write.
> 
> I somehow wrote this whole chapter in less than 24 hours, so hopefully it isn't totally shoddy, but I finally seemed to have some sort of flow going, so I just went with it.

..

Holly perused the alcohol isle slowly, running her gaze over the multicoloured bottles of whisky and bourbon and scotch, her fingertips trailing over the metal shelving as she walked, until she reached the back section and she stopped. Gail was standing in front of the refrigerators, grinning, with a basket filled with glass bottles that clinked together sharply as she began walking towards the pathologist. The blonde's arms were strained carrying the heavy load. Holly wasn't sure whether she should be highly amused or incredibly concerned.

"Do we really need that much alcohol?"

"Boys drink a lot of alcohol," Gail replied knowingly, nodding her head, as though she were an expert on the subject. Boys that is. Holly smirked and reached forward to try to alleviate the other woman of some of the weight, but the blonde was having none of it. She took a quick step back out of the other woman's reach, almost toppling herself in the process but managing to stay upright after wobbling precariously for a moment.

"I feel like this basket is your wage for an entire month," Holly commented disapprovingly as they walked back towards the cash register, pausing as she did so and picking up an expensive bottle of scotch, and then following on again. Gail was waiting for her halfway up the isle, resting the basket on a stack of boxes.

"Are you making fun of my low paying job, miss fancy pants pathologist?" The blonde's eyebrows were quirked, and mouth turned up at the corners, dimpling her cheeks in such a way as to give her an adorably cheeky expression. Holly smiled softly, adjusting her glasses as she reached the other woman and stopping close in front of her.

"What's some harmless professional taunting between colleagues?" she teased, playfully reaching up and tugging the collar of Gail's coat back down into place. The blonde flinched slightly at the intimate touch, Holly's hand still resting against her shoulder blade where it had ended up after smoothing out the piece of material. The pathologist retracted it gently and moved back a little.

"You are  _hardly_  professional, Stewart," Gail informed her, with a small smile playing at the edges of her mouth. She took the bottle of scotch out of the other woman's hands, holding it up for a moment as though thoughtfully inspecting it, before carelessly handing it back again, bored of the object, their hands brushing in the process.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Holly asked, to draw away from the fact that her heart was thudding inside her ribcage. She needed to keep herself from thinking about those soft, taut, pale fingers running over her skin.

" _Please_ , from the day we met you have been a little more than friendly towards me. Which is interesting, because I did some investigating and Dov told me that you're usually pretty reserved on scene, when he has seen you that is. That always made me wonder." The comment hung in the air for a moment before Gail nonchalantly picked the basket back up and started walking towards the store's exit.

Holly was a little dumbfounded by this new revelation.

"You asked around about me?" she asked as she hurried after the blonde, single bottle swinging in her hand next to her as she walked, like a weight, propelling her forward each time she swung it firmly out in front of her with each step.

"Yea," Gail shrugged it off casually, as though it were no big deal that she had gone around asking her friends if they'd ever met Holly. Probing for stories and details, and making a comparative analysis of their experiences, even if only unconsciously. She caught up to the other woman as she reached the end of the isle, approaching the registers. Only one was open. They both paused side by side for a second, and Holly glanced across at Gail and gave her a warm smile, one that pulled more at one side of her lips than the other, and showed in her eyes as well as her mouth. Blue eyes blinked back at her. Was that tipsiness or desire or fear that sparked in them? Or maybe all three at once.

"Sometimes I kind of wonder how I didn't manage to scare you off right from the get go." For a second Holly didn't realise the sentence had come out of Gail's mouth, and then it clicked and she frowned un-approvingly, a crease forming between her eyebrows. The blonde walked forward casually and placed the basket on the counter top. It thudded heavily when she released her grip. She turned her head back, blue eyes questioning and shy, eyebrows rising over them, asking purely with facial expression if Holly was coming or not. The brunette flushed and quickly followed, bottle awkwardly held out in front of her, and gave the cashier a friendly smile. After a small debate Holly finally succeeded to the stubborn blonde's insistence that they at least split the bill 50/50. As they exited the store the cold air rushed against their skin. At least Gail was smart enough to be wearing a long-sleeved sweater with a thick coat over the top, Holly had come straight over in exactly what she had worn home from work, and she hadn't really designed the outfit to be warm enough for extensive time spent out in the cold. She waited until they had unloaded the alcohol into the back of her car, and then upon closing the boot she stopped Gail for a moment.

"Gail?"

"Yes?" the blonde answered, stopping and reading her facial expression and then morphing her own from query to apprehension, "Why do I feel like a serious talk is coming? I don't think I'm drunk enough for a serious talk." Holly ran a hand down the blonde's arm, palm brushing against the brusque material of her coat. It felt so dislocated from Gail, the stiff, coarse texture like a barrier between her and the other woman's supple, snow white skin.

"Semi serious, not that serious. Take a breath, Gail," she insisted gently. Gail seemed to relax a little at her words.

"Can we go somewhere warmer for this? You're going to give me hypothermia." Holly's nervous heartbeat slowed a little at hearing the blonde's familiar out of place humour. The brunette smiled to herself when she automatically started listing the signs and symptoms in her head by habit.

"If you start suddenly taking your clothes off, I will assume that you are exhibiting paradoxical undressing and I won't take advantage of you. Mostly."  _Holly, please control your hormones,_ she reprimanded herself the moment the words were out of her mouth.

"Mostly?" Gail questioned smugly, then backtracked with a confused look, "Wait, para-whatical undressing?"

"Paradoxical. It's a symptom of severe hypothermia. Twenty to fifty percent of deaths from hypothermia are associated with it. That was a very morbid start to this talk," she trailed off, biting her bottom lip nervously. Gail was giving her that smile again, the 'you're kind of endearing, in an incredibly nerdy way' smile that made Holly weak at the knees. If the blonde wasn't careful, Holly might have to take back her promise not to take advantage of her. Where was she again? She took a deep breath of frigid air that drew cold down through her body.

"I can tell you this a thousand times, you aren't going to scare me off." A shiver ran down her spine as she breathed out the last word, her teeth chattering slightly. Suddenly Gail was enveloping her in a tight, warm hug, pressing the pathologist tightly against her. She held it for a moment, squeezing the brunette ferociously like she was a pliable plush toy, and then withdrew. Holly smiled.

"What was that for?"

"You looked cold," Gail replied, nudging her playfully as she walked past her, around to the passenger side door, "Now please let me into this car before we both freeze to death."

...

When they arrived back at Gail's place all of the lights were out upstairs, the only one left on down in the foyer to light their way to the front door. Gail had not had the drunken foresight to bring a key.

"Don't worry, you can kind of shimmy up the drain pipe into my bedroom window," the blonde told her with a grin. Holly felt herself go a little pale in the face, she was not fond of heights.

"How are we going to carry all the alcohol up?" she asked, as though  _this_  were her main concern, not how she was going to climb to a second story window up a rusty old drain pipe that looked like it couldn't hold a racoon, let alone a person. Gail cracked up laughing.

"You should have seen your face. Don't worry, there's a spare key in the terracotta turtle," she instructed, pointing to the small statue in the corner of the door way that had somehow until now escaped Holly's notice. The blonde crouched down and picked it up, shaking the small object until a silver key fell out of the hole in the bottom, into her palm. She grinned triumphantly and then quickly opened the door to let them in. Holly could feel her hands starting to unthaw the moment she stepped over the threshold into the warm apartment. She watched Gail slip out of her coat and hang it back on the hook. All she had brought in from the car was the bottle of scotch that Holly had selected, which was now resting in-between Gail's feet while she had been de-coating. The blonde bent down and picked it up again, before taking Holly by the hand and leading her up the now incredibly dark stairs. The brunette held on tightly, intwining their fingers and letting herself be led blindly through the quiet apartment into Gail's bedroom. It struck her as kind of funny that this was in fact the first time she had ever been in the other woman's actual bedroom. It's a pity that it was so dark. She stumbled over to the large double bed in the middle of the room, almost tripping over what she assume was a discarded item of clothing on the floor, and took a seat on the edge of the mattress. Gail placed the heavy glass bottle on what Holly assumed was a chest of draws and sat down beside her, close enough that their hip bones were just touching each other, despite the enormous amount of room on the bed to be sat on.

"Lights?" Holly asked dubiously. She wanted nothing more than to explore every inch of Gail's bedroom. She felt the blonde wiggle next to her and then suddenly Gail lay back on the bed, collapsing onto the doona cover comfortably.

"No, darkness good," she sighed. Holly lay down next to her, her legs entirely off of the mattress. Their arms lay alongside one and other, touching the whole way down to the back of their hands. Holly stretched one of her fingers back to graze Gail's softly.

"You are totally exhausted, aren't you?" the brunette asked, turning her head to face the other woman. The blonde was staring back at her in the dark through half lidded eyes.  _Three allnighters in a row, you silly woman_ , she mentally shook her head at the blonde, but physically she lay perfectly still. The ends of their noses where just barely touching, Gail's soft breathing a gently rhythm against the brunette's upper lip. Holly had to resist the urge to give her an eskimo kiss. She could tell that the officer was trying her hardest to keep her eyes open, battling against their heavy pull to fall closed and envelop her entirely in darkness. Holly reached up and gently smoothed back a strand of the blonde's soft, golden blonde hair, and Gail's eyes finally fell shut, a small sigh escaping her petite mouth as they did so.

"Goodnight Gail," Holly breathed softly, brushing her nose lightly against the blondes and leaning her head down on her folded arm to watch her sleep.

...

Holly's mobile alarm was piercingly loud in the pocket of her jeans. The shrill sound berated her ear drums for a full forty seconds as she fumbled sleepily to try and pull it out of it's snug position wedged down into fold of denim.

"What is that noise, and why is it being made so early?" she heard a muffled male voice below angrily from another room as she finally managed to silence the sound. Her eyes squinted around her at the out of focus room she was in. Even without glasses on and half asleep she was suddenly very aware that this was not her bed, her room or her apartment. She gazed down at the shape of the sleeping blonde beside her and groaned, fumbling across the bed spread to find where her glasses had fallen, and hoping to god she hadn't broken them in her sleep. Her hands found a cold, firm, thin object that upon closer, still very blurry, inspection she determined to be her glasses. She slipped them on and checked her phone again. It was six in the morning. She had fallen asleep in a very awkward position on the edge of Gail's bed, both of their legs semi entangled and still largely hanging off of the mattress. She carefully extracted herself from Gail, who was still fast asleep. Tempted as she was to wake the blonde, the other woman needed her sleep this morning more than ever. Holly stood up and made a halfhearted attempt to fix her creased clothes, the way her t-shirt fell awkwardly around her form screamed of sleeping in last nights outfit. Gail's room was slightly lightened from morning sun struggling to enter under the bottom of the curtains. Holly stopped for a moment and glanced around at the room, taking in the posters on the wall, the small ornaments on the dresser, the books covering two shelves near her bed. The blonde stirred slightly for a moment and Holly froze in place, watching the other woman, who was frowning disapprovingly in her sleep, blonde hair slightly static-y and falling in messy waves around her face and down her back. The brunette moved forward and carefully lifted Gail up, just enough to pull her further onto the bed, so that her head was resting on a pillow.

"Have a good day Gail," she whispered as she walked quietly out of the room and closed the door behind her. She glanced around the messy apartment, still littered with empty cups and bottles, the faint odour of alcohol and meat wafting in from the kitchen table. She cringed, and couldn't stop herself from tidying some of it up as she walked through, collecting cups and placing them into the sink, discarding foul pieces of alcohol saturated meat into the bin and rinsing the cups out with hot water. When she finished the place looked mildly cleaner than when she started. She let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding and tiptoed back down the stairs to her car.

After going home to shower and change she unfortunately had to go in to work. If there was ever a day when she semi wished she didn't have to go, which was not something Holly really ever did, it was today. She was staring at the computer screen tiredly over her second cup of coffee, hot steam rising up and brushing against the bottom of her chin warmly, when she received a message from Gail.

_If you hadn't forced me to drink an entire litre of water on the way home, I am not sure how bad this hangover would have been. Thank you._

She grinned to herself happily, mood suddenly upped not by the caffeine intake, but just by having received Gail's text.

_Well Toronto could hardly have it's best officer off the job due to alcohol poisoning, now could it?_

_So you admit that I am the best officer?_

_I seem to have mistakenly typed that, yes._

_Do you ever make mistakes, nerd? I don't think so._

_Get to work Peck. ps. thanks to you I now have a ridiculous amount of alcohol in the boot of my car. anyone would think i was an alcoholic, or hosting a wedding._

_Yes mam, Lunchbox. ps. don't drink it all without me._

Holly smirked and dropped her phone back onto her desk, pushing it into the further corner so as not to be distracted by it and turned her attention back to the paper in front of her. She hummed 'The Lightening Strike' to herself softly under her breath as she worked.

...

Three days, twenty seven texts between her and Gail, and a shitload of casework completed later, Holly was finishing up her work for the day. It was late afternoon, and she would usually leave later, but she'd had a particularly productive day, plus had helped solve a fifteen year old case due to discovering some new evidence, so she was feeling like a celebratory drink was in order. She hadn't seen the blonde since she'd left her sleeping that morning after their drunk Gail adventure to the bottle shop, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. She was shoving papers into her bag when her message tone went off, and she couldn't stop the smile that curled her lips up as she turned and reached for it. As soon as she saw the name on the screen however the smile quickly dropped away again. 'Lisa' was flashing up at her beneath the message icon blinking on her screen. She groaned and opened it.

_So have you picked at outfit for tonight yet? Because I have a couple of ideas._

Holly's chest constricted uncomfortably when she realised what Lisa was referring to. Oh.  _Ohhh_. She cringed as she looked at the date in the corner of her computer screen.  _Shit._  She had completely forgotten about the stupid setup she had let Lisa arrange for her. And she was supposed to be meeting this girl tonight. At the Black Penny. Why had she ever thought that was a good idea?  _Holly you know why you thought it was a good idea, a passive aggressive part of you wanted Gail to see_. She sighed heavily and collapsed back on to her wheel-y chair, which rolled backwards into the desk as she did so, and stopped with a sudden thud.  _Fuck_. There was no getting out of it, she had promised Lisa, it was all arranged, it was happening in a matter of hours. She groaned heavily and texted back.

 _Okay, let's hear it_.

Maybe if she was lucky Gail wouldn't be at the Black Penny tonight. Considering her foray into meat cocktails only nights earlier, and the ridiculous amount of alcohol she had consumed that evening, she should be steering clear of bars for a while. It seemed logical. But when was anything with Gail logical and rational and predictable? She shoved her mobile into her pocket and left her lab coat on the hook by the door, flicking the light switch off as she exited the room. When she got home she checked her phone and found four new messages from Lisa, three detailing outfit suggestions, and the fourth with a link to the woman's Facebook page.

 _'That's so creepy Lisa'_ was all she wrote back, blatantly ignoring all the texts with regard to clothing as she threw her bag onto the couch and strode straight towards the bedroom. It was already five thirty, and she was supposed to be meeting this woman all the way back at the Black Penny at seven. She paused for a minute, sitting down on the corner of her bed and pulling her phone back out. She opened the link to peruse the woman's Facebook. She felt incredibly stalker-ish as she did so. The woman seemed nice.  _Nice,_ that was pretty much the Holly word of death when it came to dating, especially with setups by Lisa. "She seems nice" really meant "we could be friends, but it would never be more than that." She groaned and leant her forehead against the screen of her mobile, feeling deflated after her earlier enthusiastic high. She felt the phone vibrate against her skin and pulled back to look at the screen, two more messages. Lisa was relentless.

_Wear your contacts._

_I know you have ignored every other text about your clothing choices for tonight, but follow this one._

Holly pouted at her phone. ' _I hate my contacts_ ' she replied. She glanced over at the dresser on the opposite wall, on top of which sat the case where she kept her contact lenses. She fumbled the phone as the next message came through.

_Holly Stewart. Second year biology labs._

The brunette laughed loudly at the memory, trying not to re-live it in her head. Not one of her finer moments. She slipped off her glasses begrudgingly.

 _'Say no more,'_ she replied, shaking her head as she rose to her feet.

...

When she arrived outside the Black Penny she could feel her heartbeat racing, could hear her pulse in her ears as she sat in her car outside the bar. Her nervousness had nothing to do with the perfectly nice woman she would be meeting tonight. She's not sure it ever could have, Lisa didn't really have any handle on what Holly's type was despite being sure that she did. Unclipping her seatbelt she stepped out of the car, weighing her car keys in her hand for a moment, unsure whether she really wanted to go inside, or just get back in her car and drive away while she was still able to. She took a deep breath.  _Gail is not your girlfriend. She if your friend who you have feelings for and who quite clearly still has feelings for you, but just doesn't know how to handle that right now and needs some patience and space. Was there a point to this thought? I think I feel worse now_. She ran a hand through her tussled brown hair and walked into the bar.

As she pushed open the door she took a quick glance around, eyes scanning for the face she remembered from those three public profile photos, failing to spot the other woman and heading straight to the bar. Alcohol, what she clearly needed was alcohol. She leant against the counter top nervously as the barman approached her.

"Scotch on the rocks," she ordered. The man grabbed a new glass and began scooping ice into the bottom when a voice beside her caught her attention, and her breath caught inside her throat, and her chest felt tight, like it was restricting her lungs from expanding to the capacity they needed for the amount of oxygen intake her brain required when Gail was standing their next to her, looking adorable, smiling sweetly.

"Hellooooo," Gail greeted her enthusiastically, stepping into the spot at the bar next to her casually as Holly quickly turned her head to face her, hair flipping around over her shoulder in the process, "can you make it two?" the blonde directed to the bar tender, who immediately grabbed a second glass and began making up another drink. Holly found herself grinning at her new found company. Why was she grinning? This is exactly what she  _didn't_  want. But at the same time, exactly what she wanted. To see the blonde. To get to talk to her, face to face.

"Hey. I didn't know you'd be here," she replied nervously, acutely aware that at any moment her  _date_ was going to walk through the door, and she wasn't remotely interested in greeting them or paying any attention to their possible presence, because all she could see or think was Gail. She turned to face the other woman, as Gail turned her gaze back to the table she'd just come from. Chris and Dov and Dov's girlfriend ( _Chloe?_ ) were sitting around a table talking loudly.

"Yea, Dov's on this new trivia kick, and he's not gunna let us sleep until he's crowned king of the dorks," Gail told her, an air of sarcastic disapproval in her voice, as she turned back to look at Holly. The brunette snorted in amusement. The funny thing is that she would probably fit in reasonably well with Gail's friends, a night at a bar playing trivia sounded right up her alley. Gail cast her gaze downwards, fishing into her pocket. She seemed almost shy for a second, almost nervous, like maybe the pathologist wasn't the only one remembering how they had fallen asleep three days ago, but then Holly thought maybe she had misread.

"Hey, why don't I get this and then you can get the next round?" Gail suggested as she pulled bills from her pocket. Holly's pulse quickened underneath her skin.

"Actually, I'm meeting someone," she answered apprehensively. Why was she so nervous about telling Gail this? She glanced up to gauge the other woman's reaction.

"Oh. Sorry." Gail's voice remained even in tone, her expression firmly unchanged as though she was making an effort not to let it. She took her drink off of the bench, bringing it up to her mouth and biting down on the small straw. Holly's stomach swirled uncomfortably as she watched.

"Don't be sorry," she insisted, awkwardly smiling, as though this was no big deal.

"Is it like,  _someone_  someone, or just, like, someone?" the blonde asked, straw still resting in her mouth distractingly as she spoke.

"I'm not sure yet," Holly told her, mimicking the other woman's varying tone, and trying to keep her smile confident and bright. Those blue eyes were piercing her, and she could read them better than she wished she could. She could see Gail's mild confusion and irritation, her disappointment. And Holly wasn't sure how to react, because it wasn't really  _fair_. She glanced away for a moment, trying to break the hold those electric blue eyes had on her when they watched her with such intensity. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her date.  _Your date, Holly. Remember? The one you are actually supposed to be on tonight_. She looked back at Gail and saw that the blonde had followed her gaze. Her stomach flipped again, leaving her feeling uneasy.

"Well," she paused, taking her drink from the counter top and pressing the cold glass to her palm as she gripped it, "Thanks for the drink." She raised her glass awkwardly in the air for a moment, and felt like an idiot as soon as she had done so.

"No worries," Gail replied stonily as Holly smiled, and turned to approach the woman who had just entered. She gave her,  _Miranda,_ she reminded herself, a warm smile as she reached her, and they shared an awkward hug in greeting, her drink held out to the side. She was already wasting this woman's time tonight, no need to give her a dry cleaning bill as well.

"Sorry," Miranda laughed as they pulled away, "I'm kind of new at this whole, being set up thing. Forgive me if I'm a bit awkward." Holly smiled and shook her head.

"No more so than I will be, I promise. Do you wanna grab a seat?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: After much painstaking writing and editing (and probably still missing 1,009 grammatical errors), going back and forth, and hating every single word of it, I give up. Here it is, the last and final chapter. All 9,630 words of it (more than the first four chapters combined I am pretty sure).
> 
> Enough of my whining, I could complain about this story forever, and all the things I wish I had done differently (if only I had planned in advance!) And I could have kept going but I feel so behind this season, and I don't have the drive for this particular story any more.
> 
> Thank you so much to anyone who has bothered to read this and especially if you have enjoyed it :) Thank you so much to those who left very sweet reviews, and even those of you who corrected some of my highly embarassing mistakes. I really hope you like the last instalment! (i apologise for the fact that i have no idea how to end a multichapter fic so i hope it doesnt feel too awkward haha)

...

It was Gail's third drink. Holly really shouldn't have been counting, considering she was on a date with someone else, but she was. She couldn't help it. She was laughing at Miranda's jokes, and listening to her stories, mostly, but that wasn't where her concentration lay, and she was certain that was beginning to show. She was hardly the most subtle person. She pulled her gaze back up from where she had zoned out staring blankly at her glass, and looked at the woman sitting next to her, giving her a friendly smile before taking a large mouthful of her now room temperature, watered down drink. One of the last remaining ice cubes slid down the side of the glass and came to a stop against her closed lips, numbing the skin for a moment. Miranda leaned in closer, her elbow resting on the table and her chin sitting on the palm of her hand.

"I like you," she said, smiling. Holly had to stop herself from choking on her drink.  _How forward. And random. Where did that come from? Had she accidentally nodded along to something she shouldn't have?_  She tried not to look concerned. She felt the other woman put her hand on top of the pathologist's where she hadn't realised she'd been resting it on the table top. Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound from somewhere closer to the bar, and they both look up, slightly shocked, along with all the other patrons, to see that a glass had been dropped. By Gail. The blonde was slightly red with embarrassment, and looked angrier than ever at her own clumsiness. She was shoeing Chris away as he awkwardly tried to help her, and only seemed to make it worse.

"Nothing to see here folks," she called out loudly and sarcastically as she bent down to try and clean it up. Most of the heads turned back away at this, satisfied that they now knew the source of the sound, but Holly's eyes lingered for a moment. Not just on Gail's ass as she bent over, but on her adorable face as her pony tail fell down off of her shoulder while she was leaning over and swung directly into her line of vision. Confusion for a second that quickly morphed into fierce agitation as she flipped it back out of her way.

"Yikes, some people don't know how to handle their liquor," Miranda laughed lightly, her hand having retracted back to her own lap. Holly was relieved for the break in the tension of the previous moment, pulling her gaze back to the woman who was addressing her.

"Holly, you're really lovely. And, to be honest, really hot," Holly felt her cheeks redden slightly, not fond of being complimented, or at least certainly not by anyone other than Gail, "But I get the feeling that you're not really feeling this." The brunette blinked. Oh, that conversation was not going where she had thought it was going. Thank god. Though she felt a little egotistical for have assumed for a moment that Miranda had been saying something else entirely. She must have looked surprised because the other woman gave her a gentle smile.

"It's okay, honestly. No hard feelings," she insisted, leaning back in her chair, "But I think I might get going. I have this really great documentary tevo'ed that I have been dying to watch and this is my first night off this week." She was being incredibly polite about it all. Holly felt incredibly relieved, and grateful, that this date was finally over. She tried not to smile too happily as she grabbed her coat off of the back of her chair, but it was hard not to. Now maybe she could catch Gail before she left, explain herself, and spend her evening in a way she would actually enjoy. Because while she really did enjoy seeing Gail actually look  _jealous_  for the first half an hour, after that it just made Holly feel kind of bad, and the longer it went on with the blonde sporting that adorably sullen look on her face the harder it was to stand.

"I'll walk you out," she told Miranda, slipping on her jacket. When she looked up at Gail's table however, it was empty, and as she looked around she just caught sight of Gail and Chris walking out of the door, bickering as they went. Her heart sunk sharply, and she wished she could drop everything and run out after her.  _How dramatic Stewart, this isn't the last fifteen minutes of a romcom, you'd probably look a little psycho_. She scratched her head and looked back at the woman standing next to her as Miranda fiddled around slowly in her handbag.

"I can never seem to find my keys when I need to," she laughed. Holly forced a tight smile as she waited. She was thinking it over in her head, she knew exactly why Lisa had thought this would be a good match. Miranda was stable, friendly, a doctor - so intelligent. She was all the things that Lisa thought Holly should want in a woman in their most plain and obvious form. But the opposite of what the pathologist found herself attracted to. Her stomach churned uncomfortably in the bottom of her abdomen and she pulled her coat in tighter around herself. As soon as Miranda was safely in her car Holly went and sat in her own in the dark and pulled out her phone. No new messages. She sat cross legged in the drivers seat and wrote Gail a text.

_hey clumsy, how was your night?_

She stared at her phone in the dark for five minutes, long enough that when she looked up all she could see was the imprint of the light on her retinas, a negative afterimage of her text conversation with Gail imprinted on everything she looked at. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then opened them again, looking out into the dark car park. She let out a heavy sigh and put the car into gear.

Gail didn't text her back until late that night. Like,  _late_  that night. Holly was starting to drift off on the couch a little after midnight, a pile of articles on her lap and her phone wedged between her thigh and the back of the lounge. The vibration woke her back up just as her eyes were falling closed, and she sat up quickly, in a slight daze, fumbling with the phone to read the blonde's message.

_fine. how was ur date?_

Holly sighed heavily as she read the message over again. She could practically imagine Gail's facial expression as she had written the message, that scrunchy thing she did with her forehead when she was mad and thought no-one was looking - unlike the cold, dead expression she gave people directly to express her disdain. The mental expression left the brunette desperately wanting to kiss Gail, to trail small fleeting pecks all over her face and make the blonde giggle against her will. She sighed heavily, her full body weight relaxing into the couch cushions as she texted back.

_really crappy actually._

She shoved the papers onto the coffee table, took her phone and stumbled into her bedroom sleepily, leaving all the lights off. She pulled off her jeans and her shirt, unclipped her bra and slipped it off from underneath her singlet, flinging it somewhere near the wardrobe, and climbed under the covers. The heavy material settled around her cold body, heat beginning to disperse from her skin and warm the small space of air between her and the covers. She was just falling asleep again when she received another text from Gail.

 _'good'_  it read. Holly smiled and fell asleep.

...

She hadn't heard from Gail yet. She tapped her feet anxiously on the supporting beam beneath her desk and drank her third coffee of the morning. Why hadn't she heard from Gail yet? The blonde surely would have been at work by now. Holly rubbed her temples, groaning and hitting save on the document she had open before aggressively closing it. She went to take another mouthful and realised her mug was empty. She was still staring into the cup sadly when a tap came at the door and she looked up to see Felicity, with a far more serious expression than usual on her face, hovering awkwardly in the threshold. Holly was still a little more concerned with her lack of caffeine than her oddly behaving coworker as she called distractedly to her.

"Hey Fliss." She sat the coffee cup back down heavily.

"Hey, you're still friends with that cop, right?" the other woman asked cautiously. Holly frowned, and focused her attention more consistently on the conversation at hand.

"Yes.." she replied hesitantly.

"I just thought you should know, we're just getting some evidence in now from a new case. There's been an officer shot," the other woman must've seen Holly's eyes go wide, and cheeks fade pale, "It's not Gail, don't worry. But it was someone from her division. Just, thought I'd let you know." She gave Holly a kind smile as she began to step back into the hall.

"Thanks Felicity," she heard herself saying, as though her body was functioning in cruise control whilst her brain was freaking out. She stood up, pacing the room, adrenalin causing her pulse to pound in her eardrums, distracting her thought processes its thrumming rhythm. She spotted the courier pile of files on the corner of her desk, waiting to be picked up, and her brain latched onto something like a life vest in the middle of the atlantic. A single, semi rationale, kind of coherent thought.

"Yes, okay, yes," she muttered, taking the top file and her keys and her phone, and exiting the lab.

...

As she was entering the precinct and her coffee rush high was reaching a more consistent and even level, and her brain had had a bit more time to think the situation over, she was almost regretting her decision. The building was practically buzzing. It was always busy, but today there was an atmosphere of chaotic rush. Everyone seemed to be hurrying somewhere. It felt like someone had dripped water onto an ants nest. She was clutching the file to her breast protectively as she wandered in. She wasn't actually sure where to look for Gail, slight flaw in her plan. She walked up to a nearby officer who had been eyeing her suspiciously since she entered. It probably didn't help that she had look like a flustered, lost puppy dog upon entering.

"Sorry, have you seen G-, um, Peck?" she asked, hoping her voice wasn't shaking. He gave her a strange look and then spotted the very official looking file she was holding very clearly in front of her and begrudgingly answered.

"Big Peck or little Peck?" he asked. Holly paused for a moment while the odd question processed.

"Little peck," she replied. In normal circumstances this would have been enough to make her giggle, but right now she was far too nervous to find it amusing. He pointed in the direction of a large room down the hall.

"Team meeting, she should be out in five," he instructed brusquely before walking away. Holly let out a long breath and leant against a nearby wall, eyes trained on the door she had been told Gail would be exiting through shortly. How exactly was she going to explain her completely random presence in the building? The last thing she wanted to do was freak Gail out by being clingy and overprotective, but she was too worried today to really care. These were extenuating circumstances. There was somebody out there going around shooting at cops from what she had squeezed out of one of the lab assistants over the phone on the drive over. Not to mention, she had had far more caffeine than her body was willing to cope with, and she couldn't be held accountable for any of her current actions. Yes, she should lead with that, definitely.

She was thinking very hard about this dilemma when she glanced back across and saw Gail walking towards her, readjusting her radio, temporarily oblivious to the pathologist's presence. Holly swallowed down her nerves and started walking towards her, clutching the file against her chest. The blonde finally looked up and noticed her, and the questioning look on her face made Holly want to run up and hug her. But she didn't. Not only because Gail would have been entirely surprised and unimpressed, but also it seemed like any sudden movements would cause the whole precinct to draw their weapons. She patiently walked over at a leisurely pace, as though in no particular rush.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Gail asked, brow furrowed, as she approached. The fluorescent lighting caught in the blue of her eyes and lit them in a soft, dulled tone as her gaze focused entirely on Holly, as though there were no-one else in the bustling building.

"Oh, I just, had to drop off a report. It's a murder case from a couple of weeks back," the brunette felt herself waving the file around awkwardly, as though this might draw the blonde's attention and stop her from furrowing further into this weak excuse for a lie. But no such luck.

"Doesn't the courier usually bring that stuff over?" Gail asked. Holly felt her mouth go dry.

"Yea, he was, sick, or something," she stumbled nervously, resisting the urge to adjust her glasses, now a tell that Gail recognised instantly. The blonde was raising her eyebrows, looking entirely confused but certainly not convinced. Holly smiled and breathed out heavily, reaching forward to take Gail's arm gently in her grip.

"Hey, come here." Her fingers held onto the stiff material of Gail's uniform shirt as she tugged her towards the closest door, pulling it open and pushing the blonde inside. She was surprised the other woman was complying so easily, but she seemed to have caught her off guard, defences temporarily down. She closed the door firmly behind them as they entered what appeared to be the back room of an interrogation room, and guided Gail into the centre. She dropped the file carelessly onto the table and gave in to the urge to adjust her glasses, which seemed to have fallen just slightly crooked in her flustered kidnapping of the blonde.

"Is it true?" Holly asked, nervous and out of breath, "I jus-, I heard a rumour that there's some freak out there hunting you guys."

"Okay, Holly, I'm not allowed to talk about this," Gail responded, shaking her head, her face unreadable. The brunette tilted her head, expression imploring and earnest, begging the other woman with her gaze to tell her what was going on. All it took was that look, which she had mastered with Gail over the past few weeks, and the blonde easily cracked, letting out a heavy breath as she relinquished the information cautiously.

"There's an officer that was shot, she's in the hospital, and-" Gail kept casting her gaze away from Holly's face as she spoke, before she stopped and wet her lips, her mouth unable to form exactly the words she meant but her eyes giving everything away as she looked the brunette in the eye and added, "a few other officers took fire." Holly's stomach somersaulted, not in a giddy way like when the blonde made her nervous and happy at the same time. This was a sensation like standing on the edge of a very tall building with no railing. But worse. Because it wasn't herself she was worried for, it was Gail, and that made it so much more horrible.

"You mean you.  _Somebody shot at you_?" she stumbled over her words, the next few syllables coming out more as squeaks of protest before she forced her mouth to form recognisable sounds, "What, and you're gunna go back out there?" She could feel her voice rising at the ends of her sentences, but she couldn't stop it, the feelings that leaked into her tone, like she was wearing her heart on her sleeve for Gail to see. Try as she might, she couldn't help it, letting the blonde see exactly what she was thinking and feeling, uncensored, all spilling out of her mouth and written in every crease and and shadow of her face in the dim lighting.

"Yea Holly, I'm a police officer," the other woman replied in her most 'duh' voice without being condescending or mean, her tone somehow still soft, something Gail rarely managed to achieve. The blonde quite often accidentally came off as so brazen and cold, which Holly found quite endearing.

"That doesn't mean that you have to go back out there and put yourself in danger." She felt a bit stupid the moment she said it. Wasn't that the job description? Something she knew and understood from having worked beside so many officers on so many cases. But it seemed so different all of a sudden when it was  _Gail_ , and she was a serious possible target, and she had literally been in a life and death situation only hours ago.

"Yea. It kinda does." Holly swallowed down the well of emotions affecting her rational judgement, trying to push them to the back of her mind, to say what she needed to say.

"Oh, okay, well, fine," she breathed out uncertainly, her lungs heavy with every breath as she forced the words over her tongue, "But, listen, that girl last night? I barely knew her, okay? It was a stupid setup." Gail shook her head slightly, naively, as though she didn't really comprehend what Holly was saying, even though the pathologist thought it was so blatantly obvious. Did she need to spell it out?

"Well anyway, i just, I thought you should know. I don't know why I didn't tell you, I mean, we tell each other stuff, right? I mean that's what's so great, is us hanging out," those gorgeous blue eyes were watching her with electric intensity, their gaze falling just below meeting Holly's eyes, and it made it hard to focus on this really important thing that she was desperately trying to tell her, "and I guess that's why when I heard what was happening I just thought I should come down here and, I dunno, just make sure you were okay, or something?" she finished, exasperated, and the last word was barely out of her mouth when suddenly Gail's lips were against her own, swallowing the last syllable off of her tongue. The blonde's hands were gently cupping her face, palms warm and moist where they clutched her cheeks, pulling Holly deep into the kiss. When she broke away, Gail breathed out heavily, her expression one almost of surprise, or maybe realisation.

"I'm sorry. You just, you just had to stop talking," she whispered, still holding the brunette's face close to hers in the dark room.

"I won't say another word," Holly promised softly, staying perfectly still, her hands resting on the blonde's upper arm as Gail leaned back in and kissed her again. Softly at first, gently capturing the pathologists bottom lip her her mouth. Holly slid her hands slowly down the other woman's arms, onto her waist, settling just above her bulky belt and gripping fiercely, as though letting go in the very literal sence might somehow translate into a large, more metaphorical kind of letting go. Without thinking, as Gail's mouth opened against her own, she pushed her tongue in between the blonde's lips. She felt Gail make a small, low moan inside her mouth, a breathy sound that vibrated against Holly's tongue, and seemed to travel down across her skin, making her stomach twist delightfully. And then suddenly the blonde was pushing her back up against the thick, one way mirror. She was very vaguely conscious of the fact that the wooden framing was pushing against her lower back, but couldn't muster the brain power to really take it in or care, because all she could think about was Gail's tongue, and her soft lips, the way their mouths moved against each other perfectly in sync, all give and take, every so often with slight vivacity on Gail's part, eagerly pushing back a little more firmly, or gently grazing Holly's bottom lip with her teeth. The brunette could feel her glasses falling slightly to the left, and the officer's hands were in her hair, tangling deep into the dark locks, finger tips trailing down the back of her neck just slightly before sliding over her shoulders, fingers lightly tracing down Holly's collar bone to pause at the dip leading down to her sternum where the neckline of her singlet rose to. They hesitated there, Gail tentatively slowing mid kiss unconsciously, her breath shaky as the hands found and gripped the two sides of Holly's button up shirt, sliding down them to their meeting point and fumbling with the button before pushing it through the small hole in the fabric. Her tongue found the brunette's and pushed against it tentatively, and then more certainly, and the pathologist's brain was a thick foggy cloud of Gail Peck sensations obscuring any rational thoughts in the back of her mind in regards to to where they were and what was going on. The blonde's cool hands finished unbuttoning the dark blue blouse, pushing the material out of her way and slipping up underneath Holly's singlet, causing the brunette's abdominal muscles to contract nervously at the touch, her stomach flipping and twisting in reaction to the other woman's soft fingers tips brushing over her skin. She inhaled sharply mid kiss, and Gail paused, slowly pulling back, breathing heavily. As she drew her lips away she kept their foreheads still pressed together. She smirked and reached up with one hand, adjusting the brunette's glasses back into place affectionately.

"I've always wanted to make out in an interrogation room," Holly hummed happily, loving the way every time the blonde let out another heavy, panting breath, it blew against her bottom lip, down her chin, just catching the top of her neck. The sensation sent goosebumps down her back, as she resisted the urge to kiss Gail again, only because she wasn't sure if this time she'd be able to stop.

"I have before," Gail told her a little smugly, and the brunette frowned, trying to bite back a small wave of jealousy that washed over her, but faded out again in a snap when the blonde planted a fast, soft peck against her lips and added, "You were a thousand times better though, don't worry." Gail sighed heavily, leaning her body fully into Holly's tiredly, and the brunette wrapped her arms around Gail's back, and held her there, the weight of the small officer warm against her front.

"I have to go," Gail told her sadly, looking up into Holly's eyes. The brunette could read in them how much the blonde didn't want to, and at the same time how important it was that she did. She smiled softly as the officer pulled back slightly, her hands reaching up and taking hold of Holly's shirt, slow buttoning it back up, till she finished at the top and let her hands rest softly against the brunette's chest. Holly was sure she must be able to feel her heart beat, fast and thudding, pounding firmly against her ribcage.

"You leave first, okay? Ill give you a minute or two head start, so it doesn't look suspicious," she told her as the blonde pulled back away from her slowly, and cool air rushed back to fill the now widening space between their bodies. Holly stood, still propped back against the glass as she watched Gail leave, casting a quick look back at her before opening the door and quickly slipping out. The brunette drew in a deep breath, moved forward into the centre of the room, her lower back now carrying a slight ache from it's awkward positioning.  _Worth it, though_ , she thought with a smirk, remembering the other woman's body pressed against hers. She ran a hand through her hair distractedly and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway and turning straight towards the right to exit in the opposite direction, back towards the exit, when she caught sight of Gail's training officer, one of the few people she had truly positive things to say about, who gave her a warm smile. She paused for a moment awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

"Hey," he greeted her, calm and friendly and completely oblivious.

"Hi," she offered a small wave, smiling back at him, and desperately avoiding look at Gail, who's bright blue eyes would no doubt currently be burning their gaze into the side of her face. It was very hard not to smirk.

"Hi," he repeated, and she suppressed a giggle, ducking her head and moving quickly towards the exit, her hands fidgeting awkwardly in front of her. Her hands. Her very empty hands.  _The file,_  she groaned internally. There was no turning back now.

"The courier was sick Oliver, if you really must know," she heard Gail's voice, defensive and awkward, echoing back down the corridor behind her. She bit her lip as she turned the corner, shoving her hands down into the pockets of her coat. Was it weird that she felt happy? Like,  _really_  happy. She suppressed the smile that wanted to take over her face until she'd pushed open the back door into the car park, the cold fresh air hitting her skin. And then it burst across her lips, an all out grin taking over her face as she pulled out her work car keys. The dar vehicle glinted at her from two rows away, and she bit down on her bottom lip, remembering the first time she had met the blonde, sarcastic and sassy and awkward in the most endearing kind of way. From that day, from that very moment that she had ducked under the yellow tape and picked her back down the slope, 'lunchbox' in hand, and the blonde had spotted her, electric blue eyes catching her gaze. That moment had been the point of demarcation, an unconscious fork in her path that she didn't even realise was there till she had already chosen right and wandered down too far to turn back. And she regretted absolutely nothing, not for a second.

...

Holly had given up on trying to accomplish anything about twenty minutes ago, because so far all she had done was bungle the report she had tried to write, and would now need to start it again, and then read the same same page of a previous report that needed to be checked  _eight_  times without taking in a single word. If she had thought that missing Gail had been distracting, then worrying for Gail's safety was ten times as bad. So she had temporarily given up, not something that Holly Stewart ever really did, and she had balanced her mobile phone against the bottom of her computer screen, where she was now staring at it intently, elbows resting uncomfortably on her desk and chin in her hands. She had texted Gail moments after leaving 15th precinct, ' _please keep me up to date on everything when you can, and more importantly, stay safe'_. When she had arrived back at the morgue there had been a reply waiting on her phone, ' _off on patrol with big O, txt u later. worry less lunchbox, u'll get wrinkles before ur 40_ '. She may have to start calling them Gail worry lines, because she couldn't remember ever frowning as much as she was now. She heard shoes tapping on the clean floors.

"Who's winning?" She glanced up to find the face that matched the voice, Felicity standing in the doorway leaning against the framing with a sympathetic and yet amused expression.

"Huh?" fell clumsily out of her mouth. Not her most phonetically profound moment. Felicity laughed and walked in, sitting on the edge of Holly's desk.

"The staring contest between you and your phone," she replied smugly, proud of her own joke. The brunette felt her cheeks warm crimson as she realised, sitting up and stretching out her sore back. She rolled her shoulders until she heard a satisfying click and relaxed back into her chair pathetically.

"I feel  _so_  useless," she confessed. That was the truth of it really. All she desperately wanted to do was help, in some capacity, to put this asshole away, to quicken the process, to in some way have an impact on making Gail a little safer again. Her stomach was all in knots just thinking about it. She hadn't been able to eat anything. Not even drink coffee, a now cold cup still sitting on her desk, full to the brim, a small stain in the shape of her lips on rim from where she had attempted to take a single sip, before the nausea washed over her and she put the cup down again forlornly. Here she was being completely pathetic, while Gail was out there putting her life on the line. She frowned again, pressing two fingers to the side of her temples.

"Okay, that's it," Felicity replied curtly, rising back to her feet. Holly looked up, saw the other woman's expectant expression, and quickly stood up, straightening out her clothes where they had creased and risen around her slumped position on the chair.

"Come with me, my pathetically love sick scientist, I am sure we can find something for you to do," Felicity was already walking out of the door.

A more steady kind of uneasiness settled over her once she was working on something. Something actually related to the case, something that might in some small way be helping. She had just finished up running a series of tests when she ran back into her office to check her mobile for the 5th time. Her screen hosted two new messages, both from more than twenty minutes ago. Her stomach tightened as her moist fingers slid across the screen, squeaking against the glass as eh unlocked her mobile and opened them

_Back at the precinct, for now at least._

_p.s. i kind of a little bit miss you_

Holly felt like she was finally letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding since she had left the blonde in Oliver's diligent care. She shoved the mobile into her pocket and walked quickly back into the lab. She wasn't exactly sure what her thought process was, but her brain was trying to come up with some kind of possible reason for her to go back to the precinct for the second time that day as she glanced around. She spotted the pile of reports on the case at hand, for most of which the important details found  _had_  been relayed by phone to the precinct, but still technically needed to be delivered.

"Felicity," she called to the other woman, who was working intently in the other corner of the lab. Felicity looked up, saw her expression and smiled knowingly as she spotted the folders Holly was hovering over.

"Should we change your job description to courier? You know, the pay is substantially less," she quipped lightly as she turned back to what she was working on. The brunette smiled, taking that as a yes, and scooping the files up into her arms. She was out the door quickly, not giving her coworkers a moment to think it over and change her mind. She held the pile of paper awkwardly to her chest, worrying with every step that one would come free and fall onto the floor without her noticing, and some vital piece of evidence would be lost, and so every few metres she glanced back over her shoulder just to check. And in such a slow and awkward manor Holly finally made her way to the car, dumped her precious cargo on the passenger seat - cursing her lack of forward thinking to maybe, oh I don't know, bring a bag to carry them in. She shook her head and buckled up her seat belt, starting up the car. Her stereo turned on as she was pulling out, the song that had been on recommencing mid-intro with swooping piano filling the car as she left the car park. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she waited nervously for a break in the traffic to turn onto the next street. Maybe she should have texted first, for all she knew she would be arriving at the most inconvenient time possible. She groaned as she pulled out onto the street, driving down in the direction of precinct. Technically she wasn't going all the way down  _just_  to see Gail. That rationalisation helped calm her pulse as she drove, until she was pulling into the parking lot, turning off the car. Had she had that song on repeat? The same melody had still been playing, then fading out as the engine stopped. She licked her dry lips, taking the files, and pushing open her door.

She dropped the files off with one of the other officers, explaining what they were, and they were rushed off to the base of operations room immediately. She took a deep breath and walked up to the large glass doors that led into the main office area of the precinct, glancing back at the woman on reception who smiled and buzzed the door to let her through. She had already spotted the blonde as she pushed it open, standing with Chris. From the moment her eyes found Gail she couldn't really see anything else.

"Gail," she called out, slipping her hands into the deep pockets of her coat as she approached to stop herself from reaching out as she was dying to do. The blonde blinked as she looked up, and walked over towards her, expression Holly thought to herself like a baby dear caught in head lights (equal parts adorable and surprised).

"Holly, hey," the blonde replied. God it was good to hear her voice again.

"Hi."

"Hey."

"You said that already," she replied, thrown off a little by the awkward energy the other woman was giving out, especially given their heated make out session only a few hours earlier. Gail's expression became slightly exasperated, and she felt a little guilty for the quip considering the current situation.

"I knew it sounded familiar," the blonde breathed out heavily, shaking her head, her body language still stiff and keeping herself at a length. All of Holly's casual front and rationalised cover story instantly melted away.

"I just wanted to see you, you know. Take ten minutes, lay eyes on you," she found herself admitting, hands slipping out of her pockets against her better judgment and reaching towards the blonde, her instincts immediately wanting to touch Gail, as though she could somehow take away some of her nervousness, her tension, if she could just hold the blonde's small hands in her own. She reached out, but the blonde shook her head quickly. And suddenly Holly realised that the nervousness, the flicker of fear, that lay in the soft teal toned blue of Gail's eyes was not to do with the case but with  _her_ , being here right now, acting so intimate with the self proclaimed ice queen in a room full of people. The brunette winced,  _oh_. She cast her gaze downwards defensively, her stomach twisting.

"Oh, okay, so that's how we're gunna do this." Her arms quickly fell back to her sides and she shoved her hands back into her pockets firmly, her emotions somewhere between embarrassed and disappointed.

"Mhmm," is all the blonde replied, tight lipped, nodding her head curtly.

"Gail, we should probably get going," she could hear Chris saying from behind the blonde, but her eyes were trained on Gail as the officer turned back her head to show him she had heard. Holly sighed and restrained herself from being mad - now was hardly the time. She withdrew one hand timidly from her pocket and gently touched the blonde's elbow as Gail turned back to face her, fluorescent lighting catching in her hair.

"Just- just be careful, okay?" she told her, and the words came out hoarsely, catching in her throat as she forced them out, willing her eyes to portray just how much she meant that. How every other little thing meant absolutely nothing right now, because the only important thing was that Gail was okay. Her thumb stroked over the material of the blonde's shirt before she let her hand drop away. The officer nodded curtly, giving her a tight lipped smile as she withdrew.

"I will," she told her certainly, grabbing her stuff up off of the desk and following after Chris. Holly watched her go - her entire chest just feeling achingly empty, and her eyes brushed over the other man standing there, short red hair culminating in a small cowlick that flicked over like an auburn wave at the front. His Gail-ish eyes caught her attention as he glanced at her and then quickly away again, looking out to where Gail had just left before he walked away. She recognised him, though  _several_  years aged, from an old photograph she'd seen in Gail's room or two teenagers, a slight, fair-haired grinning blonde and her older, taller, brother with his arm slung over her shoulder. He was a little more built now, he'd grown into his chin and his nose, but it was unmistakably him. She groaned at her utterly horrible timing, and her utter obliviousness to the situation. She found herself standing in the middle of the room, officers moving quickly around her, the well of noise surrounding her seeming to grow - though she knew that the noise wasn't actually becoming louder as much as she was becoming more aware of it, now that her Gail bubble was broken. What else did she have left to do now but go back to the morgue and wait hopelessly.

...

"The passive transfer model of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita completely depends on..." she was muttering under her breath again as she wrote, trying to turn the mess of her notes into some kind of actual, coherent article. She pursed her lips and squinted intently at the notebook, trying to decipher her messy handwriting, scribbles of that traipsed haphazardly around the page in meandering lines that seemed to have a mind of their own. This one suddenly cascaded down the page like a rapidly descending mountain side until it ran into the side of the page and had nowhere left to go.

She had heard intermittently from Gail, a text once or twice here and there when she could. It made Holly feel a thousand times better just to have some kind of contact, to know that Gail was okay, for now. The blonde had texted her some hours ago, a short message, and yet the pathologist could read so much more behind it, telling her that Oliver was missing. She didn't really know what to say, so she said the only think she could think of.

_You'll find him. Oliver is a tough cookie, and you guys are some of the best officers I know. You'll find him._

_Did you really use the phrase tough cookie in that context?_

_I feel incredibly embarrassed._

_So you should Lunchbox. but thanks._

That was the last she had heard since, and it was hours later, so Holly had done the only thing she really could do, with no really forensic work left for her at that point - she threw herself into the article she was supposed to be writing, her phone close at hand, and she worked her ass off.

She pushed her chair back for a moment and stretched her arms up above her head, reading the past two lines over again as she did so. She was just about to call it a day on the piece when her mobile went off, startling her in the silence of her room. Gail's caller ID was flashing on the screen, and she quickly answered, pressing the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi," came the blonde's voice on the other end. It was loud where ever she was, background noise buzzing behind the sound of Gail's nervous breathing down the line.

"Hey," Holly repeated uncertainly, a little bit terrified about what this call meant.

"You said that already," Gail teased gently, and the brunette laughed.

"I thought it sounded familiar," she quipped. The background noise filled the silence as Gail paused, and Holly bit back the urge to ask where on earth she was and what she was doing. She waited patiently and after a moment Gail spoke again.

"I'm, um, sorry, I guess, about before." Her voice was soft and gravely, and the brunette pressed the phone closer to her hear, till it almost ached, to make sure she didn't miss a word.  _You guess?_  she wanted to ask teasingly, but refrained.

"I don't have a lot of time, so I am going to make this short and brief. I'm sorry, about freaking out on you. I want to explain it all to you, but there isn't time. And I'm sorry for today. And I really hope you know, just how much you mean to me, you total weirdo, because I have never met anyone else like you. And, I mean that in the best kind of way. You're, just, you. And you get me, you always have, in a way that no-one really has before, right from the start. Ugh, I hate trying to say things. Why am I so bad at this when I'm sober?"

"Gail, what's going on?" Holly asked tentatively, a lump forming in the back of her throat.

"They tracked Oliver's cellphone signal, and we're about to leave now, I better go-"

"Gail," Holly interjected quickly, her heart beating up into her throat.

"Yes?" the blonde replied gently, her voice tender like it was when she mumbled something mid kiss, like when she whispered sleepily in the dark. Holly's insides fluttered at the sound.

" _I love you too_ ," she heard herself saying, the words falling clumsily out of her mouth before she could stop them, because she kind of didn't care, if Gail was going to freak out about this later then so be it, but she needed her to hear it, "Call me the moment you get back, okay? I am going to be waiting impatiently by the phone the entire time. Good luck."

"Okay nerd, I promise," she whispered.  _click_. The line went dead, and Holly let the phone slip down from her now sore ear, resting it against her chest momentarily, where her heart was still pounding. If waiting before had been bad, waiting now would be worse. She saved her document and closed everything on her computer. There was no chance of her getting anymore work done today. She picked up her coat from where it hung limply off the back of her chair and slipped her arms into the sleeves.

"Oh," Felicity's voice came from the door way for the second time that day, pulling the brunette from her trance, "I was just about to send you home," her coworker laughed at the coincidental timing, something that never usually would have happened. Holly smiled, phone still clutched in her hand.

"Want to grab a cup of coffee?" Felicity asked, and before Holly could reply and raised her eyebrows knowingly, "you're going to need something to take your mind off of it all, and it's ridiculous going all the way home. Come on, there's a diner around the corner. We can wait for her call there, over a steaming hot cup of coffee. And maybe a burger." She grinned and Holly relented, nodding. She probably would have ended up doing the same thing on her own anyway, she may as well do so in company.

"Okay, so, spill. I want to hear  _everything_ , start to finish. I think we have time."

...

The coffee was foul, but she drank the entire cup down to the last warm drop, and then she ordered a Gail special hamburger, which she managed to devour for the first time ever. Mostly because she had barely eaten all day, and her stomach seemed to finally realise this when there was a hot plate of food sitting in front of it. When she finally got the text from Gail, letting her know which hospital they would be at, it took barely a second for her to get to her feet. She paused, scrummaging through her hand bag before Felicity stopped her.

"I've got it. Go," she insisted, and Holly didn't need to be told twice, striding quickly out the door. The hospital was literally a street away, so she walked. Which quickly turned into a run. She thanked her early morning jogs as she inhaled the cold air sharply, ripping down her throat with each breath. When she reached the main entrance it felt so unnatural to walk into the lobby, instead of going in through the back entrance where the morgue was located. She stepped inside cautiously, looking around for the blonde. The area was filled with cops, where usually a police officer's uniform would have stood out in the small crowd of waiting people, and she made her way through them quickly, eyes searching, till she spotted her. And finally,  _finally_  she allowed herself to relax, now that Gail was in her sight again, whole and unscathed. She ran toward her.

"Hey," she called out softly, and Gail turned towards her, eyes watery, and pulled her into a hug before she'd even finished getting the words out, "I came as soon as I heard."

"Hey," the blonde mumbled meekly into her shoulder, arms wrapping around her tightly without hesitation or second thought, hands gripping her close as Gail's chin rested in the crook of her shoulder. Holly let her arms wrap around the blonde's waist and pull her in.

"I'm really glad that you're here." Holly felt her stomach clench at Gail's words. She could feel the slight tremor in the blonde's hands where they rested against her back, and a single hot tear falling into the brunette's hair and trickling down onto her neck, just above the collar of her shirt. She could feel her own eyes misting just slightly, and she tried to blink it back as the officer withdrew, her gaze falling straight to Gail's face, those delicate eyes rimmed red, lips chapped and crimson, and she felt herself unconsciously bite down on her own as she reached up to adjust her glasses nervously. It wasn't until Gail addressed the two men beside her that she really became aware of their presence, and she looked up nervously to meet Steve's gaze as his sister introduced them.

"Steve, this is Holly. Chris, this is Holly," Gail's voice was slightly hoarse from tears. Holly breathed out nervously, air passing steadily between her lips, but Steve smiled at her, in an almost knowing way. She was pretty sure he had had an inkling since their earlier almost run in, she had read it on his face before he walked away, his quiet observation of their interactions now fitting certainly into place in his mind.

"Hi, how's it going?" he nodded towards her. What was it about his face that reminded her so much of Gail? She couldn't pinpoint a particular feature.

"Hey," she returned. She could feel Gail's hand lingering dangerously close to her own, the back of the blonde's knuckles just grazing hers and pulling her back into the blonde's sphere, where all she could see and think was Gail, her body attuned to the other woman, aware of every subtle movement she made. Holly's gaze fell down to find her eyes again, and the blonde looked back up, irises a washed out blue-y green in the lighting, like ocean water catching the sun. Holly finally let her bottom lip slip free from where her teeth gripped it nervously and offered Gail a small smile.

"I think there's a vending machine down the hall that has semi-drinkable hot chocolate," she told her softly, "Everyone could probably use something warm and sweet abut now," she suggested uncertainly and Gail smiled back, a meek watery smile, but a smile none-the-less, and nodded her head.

"Okay," Holly nodded, glancing back towards Steve and Chris, "who wants hot chocolates?"

...

Holly waited till they were around the corner, far away from the prying eyes of any officers, and then tentatively reached across to take Gail's hand. To her surprise, the blonde let her, intertwining their fingers as they walked and gripping tightly.

"Would now be a bad or a good time to talk?" she asked as they approached the vending machine, an old chunky thing in a random corner of the hospital corridors, practically unfindable unless you knew where to look. The blonde stopped in front of it and turned towards her, still holding her hand, and without looking around nervously or hesitating she leant up and pressed a kiss against Holly's lips. Her mouth tasted salty but sweet, and the brunette had to restrain herself from deepening it further, pulling back gently.

"I think I just came out to my brother," Gail whispered, sounding slightly disbelieving, when she had pulled away. Holly smirked at the odd timing of the announcement.

"Usually I would accuse you of being dramatic, but yeah, I am pretty sure you did," she admitted, reaching up and touching the other woman's cheek softly. Gail let her, leaning into the touch tiredly.

"It's a long story, but if you want the short version, just for now I mean... I pushed you away because I didn't understand why I already hadn't? And because I was scared that you would realise soon that you didn't feel about me the way you thought you did. And this time it would hurt  _way_  worse," Gail told her, free hand coming up to hold onto one of the lapels of her jacket. Holly furrowed her brow, confused, and her head cocked slightly to the side, glasses sliding a little down her nose as she did so, so that she was looking at the blonde just over their rims, slightly out of focus, and yet so entirely distinct that she could have easily told you who was Gail Peck out of a line up of twenty blondes.

"What do you mean  _this time_?" she asked. Gail's lips quirked in a small smile at Holly's naivety, and that's when it clicked, and she felt a little stupid for having asked.  _Oh, Nick,_  she disliked even saying his name inside her head. She sighed softly, shaking her head as she leant forward and gently touched their foreheads.

"Gail Peck, how many times am I going to say this before you get it through that thick skull of yours?"

"Probably quite a few more," Gail whispered.

"Crazy as you may be, I am  _crazy_  about you," Holly insisted, thumb stroking gently across the blonde's cheek bone as she pulled her in the last centimetre to touch their lips together in a slow, chaste kiss.

"It's nice to hear you say it," Gail admitted smugly into her mouth, tugging on Holly's jacket to pull her in closer, deepening the kiss as her head titled slightly back.

"Guys?" Chris' over enthusiastic voice echoed down the corridor, just around the corner, and Holly went to pull away, but Gail pulled her back, kissing her gently one more time and making the pathologist melt. When they separated Holly couldn't help but giggle at the red faced Chris standing at the corner of the hall behind them, not entirely sure what to do with himself.

"Steve said... you might need some extra hands... for the.." he paused awkwardly, as though he had forgotten the word for it. Gail rolled her eyes at him.

"Hot chocolate? Is your IQ actually lowering over time?" she asked sarcastically as she let go of Holly's hands to grab the first paper cup and place it in the machine. Chris walked over slowly, hands in his pockets as Holly watched, amused. Once they had about six cups of hot chocolate filled between them they started to walk back, holding the drinks out in front of them carefully hoping they wouldn't spill. The waiting room was just as tense when they walked back in. Cops seemed to do tense well - there was an abundance of pacing and stares trained on the front desk as they waited for an update. In the end the hot chocolates didn't really get drunk - apart from Gail's.

"These are disgusting," she proclaimed, before downing the last portion of the liquid in two large gulps and placing the empty paper cup back on the table forcefully like she had just hammered back a shot of vodka, "Why aren't you drinking yours?" Holly eyed the reasonably full cup still held in her hands uncertainly.

"Well, after that glowing recommendation…" she commented with a smirk, discarding her now luke-warm chocolate and resting her hand on the side of her chair in-between her and Gail. She slid her finger in circles over the metal bar that separated them, until Gail's hand came down to rest on top of hers, fingers settling lightly over the gaps between her own. Holly looked across and gave her a small smile, turned her hand over into an open position to hold onto Gail's and squeezing gently.

"Hey."

"Hey," Gail replied quietly, "if you say hey again, I may have to hit you," she added with eyebrows raised daringly, "we've had quite enough of that for one day." Holly thought of that morning, and her short run in with Oliver, cheery and smiling and greeting her casually, as though she hadn't just snuck out of an interrogation room she had been making out with his officer in. Her stomach tightened slightly at the memory which now held such a different quality to how she had recalled it earlier that day. She let out a heavy breath and stroked her thumb over the back of Gail's hand tenderly.

"We can stay here as long as you want, okay? And then when you're ready, or when we have some news, I can take you home, get you cleaned up and into some fresh clothes. Maybe feed you. You're starting to sound like a stray dog, but you know what I mean. And then, we can come back again and keep waiting, okay? What ever you want. Just, let me know." Gail gave her a small nod, expression stoic as she stared at Holly's full cup on the table, liquid still just swaying slightly from the movement. When she looked back up her eyes found Holly's, electric and intense as they stared back at her.

"I'd really like that," she replied softly, voice so quiet it almost got lost in the steady, tense chatter of the waiting room, but it wouldn't have mattered if it did because it was all written there in her unguarded eyes, open and trusting and sharp blue, catching the light of the fluorescents as she held Holly's eyes, and then she blinked and glanced down, intertwined hand tightening it's grip as they waited with baited breath for some, any, news of Gail's friends. And Gail had never looked more beautiful to Holly as she did right then, clunky uniform and blonde hair staticky, one or two threads falling loose of her perfectly pulled back pony tail, striking blue eyes rimmed with soft crimson, delicate red mouth turned down, that small crease formed just between her eye brows. She let out a long steady breath. Holly was so much more than captivated, she was utterly, hopelessly, falling for this woman. For those eyes, for that smile, for her quick witted quips, and for her shyly given complements, for her brazen attitude, and for her gentle kisses, for the utter anomaly that is Gail Peck. And she was more than happy to fall head first.


End file.
